Research

Earth, Atmosphere & Environment Sciences

Title :

Invention of smart process technology for production of valuable products including oil and carbon black from waste tire

Area of research :

Earth, Atmosphere & Environment Sciences, Energy Sciences

Focus area :

Tire waste management

Principal Investigator :

Prof Narayan Chandra Das, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur

Timeline Start Year :

2019

Contact info :

Details

Executive Summary :

Tire waste is an enormous global problem because of its non-biodegradability, flammability and chemical composition that leads to the leaching of toxic substances into the ground on dumping and hazardous fumes on incineration. Since they are hefty and made of multiple materials, scrap tires present distinct challenges in recycling and disposal. Tires generally do not decay nearly as quickly as other waste in the landfill due to vulcanization of rubber in presence of sulphur; because of this, other material around the tire will decompose and cause the tire to rise to the surface of the landfill. Shredding of the waste tires before disposal has been suggested. The high operational costs of this process made it an unattractive option. This situation eventually leads to waste tires becoming litter in the environment, occupying large size of land. So reuse waste tires for a range of civil engineering applications such as the building of retaining walls, erosion control, etc and recycling them into carpet padding, flooring materials, dock bumpers, railroad crossing blocks, livestock mats, sidewalks, rubber tiles etc become a good alternative. The biggest problem with waste tires is that they contain chemicals and heavy metals that leach into the environment as the tires break down. Some of these chemicals are carcinogenic and mutagenic. Further, open burning of tires to recover steel wire as well as burning of tires to generate heat pollutes the environment with dioxins and furans, posing serious respiratory risks to human and animal life. The pyrolysis method becomes the most attractive alternative in the field of waste tires management. The main products from waste tire pyrolysis are Tire Oil, Carbon Black (char) and Hydrocarbon Gases. The tire oil has been tested as fuel in boilers and internal combustion engines and other studies reported that pyrolysis oil had a potential source of chemical feedstock in industrial processes. However, the utilization of pyrolysis oil and pyrolysis char appeared to be limited due to the presence of sulphur. But the main drawbacks of tire oil are its bad odour and components containing sulphur. In this project, Investigators will try to invent technology to get more advanced tire oil and carbon black with zero-emission and with overcoming present drawbacks. Different recycling routes, like pyrolysis, supercritical fluid extraction, devulcanization and combination of these three techniques will be investigated to convert them into oil, carbon black and other valuable products. The techniques will be optimized to pilot plant by considering yield of products, quality of products, production cost and safety parameters, global environmental emission and targeting to the ZERO EMISSION AND ZERO WASTE.

Co-PI:

Prof. Kinsuk Naskar, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Prof. Santanu Chattopadhyay, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur

Total Budget (INR):

87,99,890

Organizations involved