“The Government decision to ban exports of end-of-life whole tyres from the end of 2021 will leave Australia with a massive gap in our tyre recycling capacity,” according to Trevor Bayley, the Chief Operating Officer of tyre recycler Green Distillation Technologies.
“The Government announcement does not make an estimate of the total number of whole tyres that are currently exported as most that leave our shores are in the form of crumbed or chopped tyres and these are not included in the ban at this stage.
“We can step in to the fill the gap as we have world-first Australian developed technology that can recycle old tyres into valuable oil, carbon and steel and we can bring our processing plant at Warren in Western New South Wales up to full production in 12 months and our other planned facility in Toowoomba, Southern Queensland, for which we have received all the required Government approvals, to full operation in 18 months.
“The projected cost of this two facilities is $20 million.
“We have also investigated building plants in Wagga, Geelong, Elizabeth, Meekatharra and Gladstone and our five year plan is for seven plants around Australia, which will have the capacity to handle 30% percent of the 25 million end-of-life tyres Australia generates each year.
“The only thing holding us back at this stage is the need for investment funds and although we been supported by our loyal shareholders and Federal Government grants up to this stage, each plant will cost $12 million to reach full operational status,” Trevor Bayley said.
He said that every plant, with six modules and operating 24/7 will process a mix of 19,000 tonnes of tyres per year and each typical 10 kg car tyre will yield 4 litres of oil, 4kg of carbon, 2kg of steel, a 70kg truck tyre will provide 27 litres of oil, 28 kg of carbon, 15 kg of steel and 4 tonne oversize mining dump truck tyre will yield 1.6 tonnes of carbon, 0.8 tonne of steel and 1500 litres of oil.
“Each plant is expected to have a permanent workforce of fifteen and require more during the construction phase and have a local economic multiplier effect with more people required to collect and deliver the old tyres to the plant.
“An agreement has been signed with Southern Oil to take all the oil produced by GDT in Australia going to their Gladstone refinery. They have described our oil as light crude, which is low in sulphur and easy to refine into petrol, diesel jet fuel and other petroleum based products.
“The carbon is a high-grade product that has massive potential for sale as carbon, in the form of carbon black, which is one of the world’s most widely used chemical building block and is used in many products ranging from tyres, plastics and paints, water filtration, printers‘ink, paint, electrodes, graphene, toothpaste and cosmetics including eyeliner, mascara, nail polish, eye shadow, blushes, rouge and lipstick.
“We have signed a joint agreement with CarbonScape from New Zealand to research the use of our carbon to make graphite, which would greatly enhance the value. CarbonScape has pioneered technology to make graphite from sawdust, but it has been found that our carbon is equally suitable.” Trevor Bayley said.
He said that the steel reinforcing mesh and beading of the tyre can be fully recycled by being returned directly to the tyre manufacturers for reuse in new tyres or simply recycled as scrap steel.
“Our Australian developed world-first tyre recycling process has attracted strong interest from the US with the company receiving many international approaches with one resulting in a recent Memorandum of Understanding for five processing plants in South Africa, which is a deal valued at more than $50 million.
“We have also welcomed visitors to our Warren plant from almost every country on the planet including Japan, Thailand, Canada, the United States, Middle East, Pakistan and India to name but a few.
“What we have done is a world breakthrough and we’d like our first plants to be in our own country, but it is our fervent belief that our technology will eventually become the preferred means of recycling old tyres throughout the world,” Trevor Bayley said.
Released for Green Distillation Technologies by Dennis Rutzou Public Relations (www.drpr.com.au)
For further information please call or Dennis Rutzou on 0411 510 888.
