Tyre recycler Scandinavian Enviro Systems (Enviro) is participating in a three-year project at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg within the scope of an initiative to reduce the carbon footprint of West Sweden’s chemical industry. The collaboration aims to leverage increased knowledge to develop the next generation of Enviro’s pyrolysis-based recycling technology.
The project is part of the innovation agency Vinnova’s ten-year Vinnväxt initiative Klimatledande processindustri (“Climate Leading Process Industry”). The initiative aims to support the West Sweden chemicals industry’s transition from its dependence on fossil fuel to an industry based on renewable and recovered raw materials. In addition to Enviro, other participants include Stena and the chemical company Borealis.
The sub-project involving Enviro’s technology addresses the recovery of complex polymers and is being led by the Division of Energy Technology at the Department of Space, Earth and Environment at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg. Chalmers is represented by Associate Professor Martin Seemann and postdoc scientist Nidia Diaz, both of whom have many years of experience in pyrolysis. As part of the project, the Chalmers scientists are visiting Enviro’s plant in Åsensbruk this week to see the process in operation and to investigate possibilities for taking joint measurements.
Through combining Enviro’s many years of experience in pyrolysis with the latest research findings in the area, the parties hope to collaborate on developing the next generation of material recycling solutions using pyrolysis.
“The aim is to study the technology more closely to obtain a better understanding of it and to thereby be able to make future improvements,” says Martin Seemann.
“Thanks to our facility in Åsensbruk, we have more than ten years of practical experience with pyrolysis. The collaboration with Chalmers means that we can combine that experience with advanced research for the development of the next generation of pyrolysis-based solutions for different materials,” says Thomas Sörensson, CEO of Enviro.