Pyrum explains ‘incidents’ at new tire pyrolysis line

Dillingen, Germany – Pyrum Innovation AG has explained two incidents at the production line TAD2, currently under commissioning at its flagship end-of-life tire (ELT) pyrolysis plant in Dillingen.

The ‘unintended situations’, which Pyrum said are now under control, included a failed gas line to which shift workers reacted too late.

“Restarting the gas line rectified the fault in minutes,” said Pyrum CEO Pascal Klein in an update to investors 8 May.

The issue, he added, has now been resolved by retraining staff and raising the alarm "louder and earlier".

In the second incident, a gas pipe was overgrown with salt crystals and therefore blocked.

Here, Klein noted that Pyrum was familiar with the problem at its first production line, but added that the salt build-up “usually takes months” in the first line.

“Due to the high material throughput in the new lines, the problem occurs more quickly there,” the waste tire recycler said.

But according to Klein, this could represent a “positive sign”, showing how much rubber has been recycled by the line so far.

Klein said Pyrum has now taken action and put in place a new maintenance plan.

An automatic water rinsing system will also be retrofitted in the short term so that the crystals can be washed out during operation.

To conclude, Klein said the incidents were not ‘worth reporting’ and that a 'warm commissioning' is there to rectify any faults that may occur in a complex plant.

“Otherwise, a planned commissioning time of around one year would not be necessary if everything worked 100% right from the start,” he added.

The new production line is part of Pyrum's expansion plan at its facility in Dilingen to scale up ELT processing to 20 kilotonnes per annum.

A third line, TAD 3, is set for start-up in May, to be ramped up directly to 80% of nominal capacity, according to Klein.

If both new lines run in parallel, Klein noted, the output of the two systems will be gradually increased to 100%.