Pyrum in major waste tire recycling JV deal with Unitank

Dillingen/Saar, Gmernay – German waste tire pyrolysis company Pyrum Innovations and Hamburg-based tank-terminal operator Unitank have signed an agreement to form a joint venture to build between five and ten end-of-life tire (ELT) recycling plants across Europe in the coming years.

The new company, UniPyrum, will be 51% owned by Unitank and 49% by Pyrum, the tire recycler announced 9 Jan.

It will operate as an independent business, with its own management team based in Hamburg, to develop and run a network of ELT thermolysis plants in Germany and neighbouring countries.

Each site will initially be equipped with at least three of Pyrum’s pyrolysis reactors, giving a minimum annual recycling capacity of 22 kilotonnes per annum (ktpa) of waste tires processing per plant.

As part of the agreement, the partners have already defined target regions for the first three plants and carried out pre-engineering work and business-plan preparation.

Unitank’s site in Emleben, Thuringia, central Germany, has been identified as a potential first location, with the approval process expected to begin shortly.

At the same time, Unitank is in talks with future suppliers of waste tires and with potential buyers for the output streams from the plants, Pyrum said.

Unitank CEO Jan Vogel said the joint venture marked a “decisive step forward” in the companies’ long-standing partnership, creating “a new business area with strong growth potential that is independent of the energy transition.”

According to Vogel, the partnership will combine Pyrum’s technology with Unitank’s experience in operating “critical infrastructure in the energy sector.”

Pyrum chief executive Pascal Klein said the deal followed a series of recent steps aimed at accelerating the company’s plant rollout, including a funding approval in Greece and a separate shareholder agreement with SUAS.