At the moment, just one of the batteries has been converted, however, within the next six months this will increase to six batteries – half the plants overall capacity. Each battery will be able to receive up to 15,000 tonnes of used tyres a year.
Nick Ross, commercial director at Coalite said the final tonnage of tyres the plant will receive should eventually rise to 90,000, which amounts to around 20% of the UK’s used tyre stock.
Tyres will be obtained through a supply agreement with Midco and WTS – Waste Tyre Solutions which is collecting mainly from the south east of England and delivering to the plant. At the moment, the plant only receives shredded tyres, but from next March, whole tyres will be accepted and a shredder will be installed on site.
The last 18 months has seen research and development into the scheme, which works rather like carbonisation. The pyroysis of tyres put simply means heating without oxygen. According to Mr Ross, the process does not produce any waste, with all by-products utilised or re-used in the process.
Steel
The process drives off gas, which can be re-used in the next heating cycle. Steel beading in tyres – made of high carbon steel, can be baled and sold. Trials for the sale of this beading are underway with Corus. Oil is also produced, which is taken by Coalite’s sister company, Coalite Chemicals and converted for the use of heating.
Char is also produced, which is a substitute for the coal blend used in smokeless fuel, as well being used for this, it can also be ground down and used as a replacement within the rubber and plastics process to produce tyre inner-tubes. The char can also be used to improve the quality of water by helping to remove heavy metals from the water, in for example, a steel treatment process.
“Coalite uses a unique set of coke ovens. No other ones in the world are able to use such low temperatures of around 640 degrees centre grade that’s used for carbonisation, for the use of pyrolysis as well,” said Mr Ross.
Mr Ross declined to give any figures regarding the scheme, although he did say setting up a similar plant in the UK would cost in excess of 30m.
No funding was received for the process, with Coalite funding the research and development of the project in-house.
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