Conti acquires rubber pyrolysis technology from UK start-up

Hanover, Germany – ContiTech has acquired pyrolysis technology from UK start-up LowSulphurFuels for the recycling of “complex rubber compounds,” parent group Continental announced 3 Sept.

With the deal, it said, ContiTech has obtained “an exclusive patent family” and commissioned a pilot plant to produce purified pyrolysis oil through recycling complex rubber compounds “on an industrial scale.” 

According to the German group, rubber products with complex structures – such as food-grade hoses or rubber-metal composites with various additives – present a major recycling challenge.

The acquired technology is said to overcome the hurdles: thermally breaking down waste rubber to its basic chemical compounds and allowing the recovery of “high-quality raw materials.”

Continental said the process produces “a high-quality oil that is comparable in quality to fossil crude oil and can serve as a basis for new rubber and plastic products.”

The technology was originally developed by LowSulphurFuels, which built a purification facility to prepare the oil for industrial use.

Continental said the purification stage addresses key hurdles in pyrolysis, including quality consistency, making the process “economically and technically feasible.”

“We’re [now] able to recover high-quality raw materials from rubber waste, which we can then feed back into the chemical material cycle to create new products,” said Dr Michael Hofmann, chief technology officer at ContiTech.