Regulations scupper Enviro-Vanlead rCB project in China

Gothenburg, Sweden – Scandinavian Enviro Systems AB (Enviro) has announced that changes to local regulations have stopped its project to build a 30 kiltotonnes/year tire-recycling plant for Chinese tire maker Vanlead Group.

The project, said Enviro, had to be re-evaluated following the introduction of stricter local regulations on 27 Nov 2017. The rule changes concerned the site’s location in Guangzhou, China, it noted.

In a 10 April statement, the Swedish company said both parties had worked hard to execute the project, which involved manufacturing recovered carbon black (rCB) at Vanlead’s site.

“The specific site is located in an industrial area for tire production and is consequently not approved for production of petrochemical substances with a flash point below 60°C,” the company explained.

Both parties “worked intensively” to optimise several options for the oil fractions with a flash point below 60°C produced in Enviro’s technology, said Enviro –  citing ethanol with a flash point of 12°C and gasoline of below?−20°C as references.

“The different alternatives discussed in order to meet the new flash point regulations were finally insufficient for this specific site selected by the customer,” the Swedish firm added.

“It is certainly sad that we are not able to realise a project at this site after all the hard work put in by both teams for a long time”, said Thomas Sörensson CEO, Enviro.

The project was in the pipeline for over a year, with tests carried out to ensure the quality of the rCB.

Vanlead and Enviro said the would keep the door open to future cooperation in China or internationally.