Remondis, Pyrum mull joint tire recycling plant in Germany

Dillingen, Germany – Waste tire pyrolysis company Pyrum has signed a letter of intent with German recycling company Remondis for the establishment of a factory to process end-of-life tires (ELTs) in northwest Germany.

The two sides expect to start the approval process for the factory in the port of Bremen in the coming weeks, Pyrum announced 13 Nov.

The facility, with the capacity to process 20 kilotonnes per annum (ktpa) of used tires, will be located on a site owned by Weserport, a subsidiary of Remondis sister company Rhenus.

The plant will use Pyrum pyrolysis technology to recover carbon black and other materials from waste tires.

The project, said Pascal Klein, CEO of Pyrum, is “another important milestone” in the company’s efforts to increase recycling capacity to meet “the high demand for our end products.”

According to Klein, German chemicals major BASF will be the buyer for the pyrolysis oil to be produced at the Bremen plant.

The chemicals group will use the oil in its production network to manufacture mass-balanced products.

The partnership, according to Juergen Ephan, managing director of Remondis Recycling, is “taking on a previously very challenging material stream that to date could only be used thermally.”

“Together we are actively contributing to making our society and economy a little more circular instead of linear,” he added.

The project is the latest in a series of Pyrum expansion projects both inside Germany and in Europe.

In October, the German recycler announced plans to set up a factory in Czechia, a month after disclosing plans for a new facility in Greece.

Earlier in the summer, Pyrum signed an agreement with Suez recycling and recovery company for its first ELT pyrolysis plant in the UK.

At the beginning of the year, the German company signed a deal with Norwegian circular plastics company Polyfuels Group AB to jointly establish four ELT pyrolysis plants in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Estonia.

The recycler has also taken on a local German project, with plans to build a 20ktpa processing factory in Homburg, in the German state of Saarland.

Pyrum is also set to start operations at its own expansion project in Dillingen imminently, after the ‘warm commissioning’ of two new lines at the facility.

The expansion will bring up the capacity at the flagship plant to 20ktpa.