Wastefront wins grant for tire-derived oil purification project

Oslo – Norwegian waste tire recycling company Wastefront As has been awarded a €2 million grant to develop a catalyst-based oil purification process.

The grant from Eureka Eurostars – a funding-programme for business collaborations in commercialising innovative products – was awarded to Hyfuel, a joint project between Wastefront and Swedish chemical engineering company Hulteberg.

As part of the project, the companies aim to develop a catalyst technology to purify pyrolysis oil extracted from end-of-life tires (ELTs).

The initiative will enable Wastefront to optimise some of the characteristics of tire-derived oil to make it a suitable biofuel replacement for diesel fuel.

“This marks an important step in Wastefront’s mission to improve oil quality and sustainable solutions portfolio,” the company said in a 1 Nov statement.

With the grant, Wastefront said it will accelerate the development of efficient solutions to tackle large-scale tire wastes and a scientific processes to create a ‘circular tire economy’.

Backed by energy giant Vitol, Wastefront secured planning permission in January 2022 to build the £100 million (€120 million) tire recycling plant in Sunderland, which is set to be commercially operational by 2025.

At full capacity, the plant will be able to manage 20% of the UK’s total ELTs through processing 80,000 tonnes annually.

According to Wastefront, the 10-million supply figure corresponds to "a substantial volume" of the total waste tires that are currently exported from the UK per year.