Bridgestone and partners to create closed-loop tires recycling system
Bridgestone EMEA, Grupo BB&G and Versalis have signed an agreement to establish a closed-loop ecosystem to transform end-of-life tires into new tires.
The closed-loop ecosystem to transform end-of-life tires into new ones.
End-of-life tires will be transformed, through pyrolysis, into tire pyrolysis oil (TPO) to create high-quality elastomers. The partnership will leverage BB&G’s thermomechanical process of pyrolysis to recycle end-of-life tires on a commercial scale.
BB&G has built and operated two generations of pilot plants in the past 10 years and has recently commissioned its first commercial scale tire pyrolysis production to validate the feasibility and quality outputs of the process.
BB&G’s TPO unit is located in Fatima, Portugal and has been successfully up and running since July 15. The first amount of BB&G oil will be fed into Versalis’ plants to manufacture the circular elastomers that Bridgestone will use to create a first batch of tires in early 2025.
Versalis has been developing circular technologies and processes through polymer recycling, including mechanical and chemical recycling. Versalis will integrate BB&G’s pyrolysis oil into its own supply chain thus expanding the Balance product range, which is ISCC PLUS certified.
Bridgestone can transform these elastomers into tires with an enhanced percentage of rubber obtained from secondary raw material.
As part of the collaboration, all three companies will also work together to research and realize the best technical solutions to establish a successful ecosystem for future recycling of end-of-life tires on a large scale.
