Senin, 13 Agustus 2012

Tire Pyrolysis And Waste Management

By Yesenia Velez


In most countries around the world disposal of waste is a growing problem. Landfills are becoming full and this causes a variety of problems relating to space as well as having a severe impact on the environment. Used tires play a large role in the junk going into dump sites. One potential solution to this issue is tire pyrolysis.

Within the last 100 years motor cars have gone from being a fledgling technology to a common sight all around the world. In modern western societies most households have at least one automobile and some families own several. These vehicles all need tires and as new car production increases so does the production of tires.

On a worldwide scale approximately two million tires are manufactured every day. Cars, bicycles, and commercial vehicles all make use of some type of tire. The nature of their function meant that tires are subject to a lot of wear and tear, causing new tires to have to be fitted to a vehicle on a regular basis and the old tires dumped.

The main raw material used in the manufacture of tires is synthetic rubber that is derived from petroleum, also called crude oil in some places. Synthetic rubber is not biodegradable and untreated tires could easily take more than a hundred years to decay in a land fill. To make matters worse some people just dump their used tires in public places and they are a common site in many rivers, lakes and fields.

Landfills have a major negative impact in areas with a high population density as they occupy vast amounts of scarce and expensive land as well as sometimes being the cause of health and environmental problems. For these reasons and others, reducing the amount of junk going into landfills makes logical sense. One way to reduce the size of this problem is to recycle used tires rather than dump them.

Tires can't easily be recycled in their original state. Sometimes they are shredded or broken up into beads or chippings. These derivative products are used in the manufacture of certain products like rubber matting, running tracks and other sports surfaces.

In principle this kind of recycling makes sense however it is often impractical due to the substantial costs that must be incurred in order to gather up and process waste tires. As a result of all the input costs recycled materials are often very expensive. This stops them from being truly attractive to manufacturers.

tire pyrolysis can be a better solution for getting rid of waste tires. In this process waste tires are subjected to intense heat in an oxygen free environment. This causes the tire material to break down into gas, an oily substance and carbon char. From these substances other valuable substances, for example carbon black, can be recovered and re-used.

There is still a lot of work required to fully develop the technology used for pyrolysis but even in its current form it has the potential to make a huge dent in the quantity of scrap tires that find their way into dumps every year. Many people and organizations are investing time, effort and money into improving the process. In time all of these efforts will pay off in the form of a cost-effective, environmentally friendly and efficient process.




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