Australian university develops tyres-to-steel process

ERJ staff report (DS)

Melbourne, NSW -- A senior professor at the University of New South Wales has developed a process to use scrap tyres in the steel-making process. Professor Veena Sahajwalla, Scientia Professor at the University of New South Wales and head of the Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology in the UNSW Science Faculty worked with local steel-maker OneSteel on the process.

OneSteel has licensed the technology from NewSouth Innovations, the commercialisation arm of the University of New Wales, and successfully trialled it at its Sydney and Melbourne plants. The invention has the potential to divert 300,000 car tyres from landfill.

The system uses the old tyres as a partial replacement for coking coal in the arc furnace. The arbon in the tyres combines with iron to make steel, while the steel cord in the tyres simply melts into the new steel being created in the furnace. There is no mention of the impact of sulphur on the steel.

The Australian company says it has made steelmaking cheaper and more efficient by slashing its power use by millions of kilowatts per year, and cutting its use of coking coal by between 12 and 16 percent. The technology could massively cut power use and carbon emissions by the world's 300 electric-arc furnace steelmaking plants, which account for 30 percent of crude-steel output globally.

The project won the category of environmental project and was the overall winner in the University's Inventor of the Year awards for 2011.

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Awards page from UNSW (Includes YouTube video of the winning project)

Profile of Prof. Sahajwalla from UNSW

Burning rubber to forge steel New Scientist (Australia)