There are two physical actions involved in the conversion of tires into biofuel: shredding and pyrolysis, or the decomposition of the tires by exposing it at high temperatures and the use of a special catalyst.
how much does a tire shredder cost TDF processing may involve whole tires or tires cut down into uniform species. The size of the tire for fuel conversion would largely depend on the kind of combustion unit to be utilized.
In shredding rubber, scrap tires can be entirely placed into the shredder. There is also the option to have the beads extracted before shredding. Shredders are high-shear and low-torque in nature capable of reducing truck tires with an outside diameter of 48 inches to 1 to 4-inch pieces.
After the tires have been cut into smaller pieces, these are then fed into a pyrolysis reactor. In this machine, the rubber is softened by exposing it to high temperatures that can exceed 700 degrees Celsius. At high-temperature heating, rubber polymers would break down into smaller molecules. These would then vaporize and exit from the pyrolysis reactor.
The vapor can be condensed into bio-oil or pyrolysis oil, an oily type of liquid. It can also be burned directly for power production. Some molecules too tiny to condense remain as gas and burned as fuel.
Critical to this process is the heating rate of a tire as it can affect reaction time, product quality and yield, and energy requirement. In instances when the heating temperature is at around 450 degrees Celsius, the product is liquid which is often a mix of hydrocarbon. At heating temperatures above 700 degrees Celsius, the primary product is synthetic gas or syngas primarily because of cracking of the liquids.
Aside from being used as biofuels, the derived byproducts of bio-oil and syngas can be used as feedstock for refining chemical products. Bio-oil is coveted for its low sulfur and residual carbon content aside from having a high calorific value. It is used in paper mills, cement kilns, power plants, foundries, industrial furnaces, and other industries.
The solid residue from scrap tires called char contains inorganic matter and carbon black. It is commonly used as activated carbon or smokeless fuel in the rubber industry.
In Australia, however, a tire recycling process does not require the shredding of scrap tires in order to convert it into biofuel. The Victoria-based Green Distillation Technologies processes all kinds of tires including the super singles with a diameter of 1.2 meters. The tires are loaded into an airtight process chamber. Shredding, crumbling, or chopping of the tires are not required.
The tires are then subjected to high-temperature heating which serves as a catalyst for a chemical reaction. The tires are destructed into various compounds, one of which is gathered and condensed into the oil. This is the same as the bio-oil produced by a pyrolysis reactor.
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