Hanover, Germany-based Continental AG says its Continental Tires business unit has reached a long-term purchase agreement with Pyrum Innovations for the latter firm to provide Continental with recycled-content carbon black (rCB) to be used in tire production.
Continental describes Germany-based Pyrum as “a specialist in the thermolysis technology of end-of-life tires” whose process can create “particularly high-quality rCB recovered from end-of-life tires.”
The tire maker says it intends to use rCB in the production of passenger car tires. Continental says previously it had signed a development agreement with Pyrum in 2022. That same year, Pyrum announced a joint venture agreement to build a pyrolysis-based tire recycling plant in southern Germany.
Continental describes carbon black as an important raw material both for tire production and for the manufacture of other industrial rubber products, since it “increases the stability, strength and durability of tires.”
The company says carbon black recovered from end-of-life tires helps reduce the use of fossil fuel-based raw materials and CO2 emissions.
“Recycled raw materials are becoming increasingly important in our tire production,” says Jorge Almeida, head of sustainability at Continental Tires. “To further increase the circularity of our products, we need to think differently. We need to move from an ‘end-of-life’ to an ‘end-of-use’ tire concept.”
Adds Almeida, “Together with Pyrum, we are developing highly efficient processes to recycle as many components and materials as possible from an end-of-use tire back into our production cycle.”
Continental says its tires already contain recycled materials, including rubber from mechanically processed end-of-life tires, recycled-content steel and recycled polyester from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles.
Comments Pascal Klein, CEO of Pyrum Innovations, “The expansion of our cooperation with Continental is a very important step for us. To ensure that Continental can also use our recovered carbon black in the series production of passenger tires in the future, we are continuously working on its further development as part of a development partnership.”
According to Klein, the two companies previously have cooperated toward “ensuring that all newly produced forklift tires at the Continental tire plant in Korbach, [Germany], contain our sustainable carbon black.”
As part of its sustainability strategy, Continental says it aims to increase the use of sustainable materials in its tires to 100 percent by 2050, with recycled-content materials making “an important contribution.”
Courtesy : recyclingtoday.com