There are favourable opportunities to establish a commercially successful recycling plant based on Enviro’s technology in the UK, as concluded in a feasibility study that commenced in November 2020 and has now been completed. According to the study, the favourable conditions derive primarily from the large domestic demand for recovered oil for the production of renewable vehicle fuel.
The feasibility study was conducted by Sweden-headquartered Enviro’s representative in the UK market, 2G BioPOWER, but also involved an international oil company with operations in the UK, and the engineering company OSL. The purpose of the feasibility study was to investigate the commercial and technical conditions for establishing a profitable, large-scale recycling plant based on Enviro’s technology. One of the conclusions of the feasibility study is that, while local demand for recovered carbon black is more difficult to assess, the interest in recovered pyrolysis oil is already so large today that it will be possible to sell all the oil that can be produced. The reasons for this include the incentives launched by the UK government in 2018 to produce so-called development fuel, a new category of renewable vehicle fuel. After 2G BioPOWER received the Ministry of Transport’s approval in 2019 to convert Enviro’s pyrolysis oil into development fuel, the company has received large interest in pyrolysis oil from a major UK oil refinery.
Related: UK study investigates tyre recovery with Enviro’s tech
The profitability calculations conducted in the feasibility study build on a plant comprising 20 of Enviro’s reactors and that half of the supply of end-of-life tyres (ELTs) will be secured through imports, although UK exports of ELTs are considerable. The reason for the latter is insufficient local infrastructure currently available for the recycling of ELTs. The feasibility study also found sales of recovered carbon black would also significantly improve the profitability of a local plant.
“There are few tyre manufacturers in the UK, so the local demand for carbon black is small. However, it is easy to export recovered carbon black and since the global demand is strong, we see no problem whatsoever in also selling the carbon black. In conclusion, this means that we also foresee favourable fundamental conditions for establishing plants based on our recycling technology in the UK,” says Thomas Sörensson, CEO of Enviro.
A life cycle analysis conducted by the IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute shows that tyre production using carbon black that has been recycled using Enviro’s method could lead to 79-84% lower greenhouse gas emissions, compared with production using virgin carbon black. Enviro has entered a strategic partnership with the French tyre manufacturer Michelin, which is Enviro’s largest owner since April of last year.