The Port of Ostend in Belgium says that tyre recycler Tyros BV, founded in May 2024, will set up a tyre recycling plant on a 2-ha site on the former UCB site in the port area of ??Ostend. Supported by Belgium’s Flanders regional government, with a EUR1 million grant in strategic ecological support, Tyros is investing in an electric pyrolysis reactor with a capacity to convert 9,125 tonnes/year of rubber granulate from discarded tyres into raw materials such as carbon black, pyrolysis oil, and syngas.
These raw materials find their way to various sectors, including petrochemicals, automotive, ink production and energy.
The new technology will prevent the emission of almost 21,000 tonnes/year of CO2, compared to the traditional combustion of rubber granulate, it adds.
In the long term, the site will process 100,000 tonnes/year of tyres, of which 18,000 tonnes via on-site pyrolysis, resulting in the production of 5,000 tonnes of pyrolysis oil and 6,800 tonnes of rCB, crucial raw materials for circular applications.
Tyres will be delivered by truck, while shredded tyres will be transported by container via the waterway for further processing, including via a feeder service between Ostendand Antwerp.
“The establishment of Tyros in the port of Ostend means a further strengthening of the cluster of circular industry, and also extra employment in the region. In the long term, this project will directly and indirectly create dozens of new jobs and strengthen the economic structure of the Port of Ostend,” said Charlotte Verkeyn, Chair of the Port of Ostend.