Technip Energies to build Wastefront’s UK tire recycling plant 

London – Norwegian waste tire recycling company Wastefront AS has named Technip Energies as its engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) partner for the building of a £100 million (€120 million) tire recycling unit in the UK.

Construction work is scheduled to start on the Sunderland-based plant in the second quarter of the year and start-up is expected to be in the first quarter of 2024, said Wastefront in an 11 Jan statement.

“Having Technip Energies… is yet another step in our ambition to build a world scale green industrial platform,” said Vianney Valès, CEO of Wastefront. 

Wastefront and Technip Energies have also agreed on a strategic partnership to deploy Wastefront projects worldwide.

The Sunderland plant will be used as a blueprint for the global replication of the unit.

Wastefront aims to convert locally-sourced end-of-life tire (ELT) waste into commodities, including liquid hydrocarbon fuels and recovered carbon black for use in applications including tires, water filtration, printer ink, paint and cosmetics.

At full-scale, the unit will operate 12 catalytic pyrolysis reactors and have a daily capacity to process 80 kilotonnes of ELT waste per annum.

Carbon black capacity is expected to reach 60 tonnes/day, and liquid hydrocarbons output 90 tonnes/day.

Oil trader and Wastefront investor Vitol will be the offtaker of the liquid products.

Heat generated from Wastefront’s Port of Sunderland operation will be repurposed locally within industry or can also be used to heat residential homes.