CHE.10 – Tires to Fuel & Flavors

• Shayma Abdallah
• Jessica Fajardo
• Rebecca Listiawan
• Emily Seriruk

In the United States, approximately 250 million waste tires must be managed annually. This has led to urgent environmental issues, including soil and water contamination, fire hazards, and habitat destruction through exceeding landfill capacity. This project aims to create an innovative tire waste-to-value solution by using pyrolysis to decompose waste tires to extract and sell high-value chemicals and fuels. The process begins with pre-treatment, converting whole tires into smaller chips and removing steel wire pieces before the pyrolysis reactor, followed by distillation. Since pyrolysis requires an extensive amount of heat to break down rubber tires, we will combust all the non-condensable vapors and some of the char that are byproducts of pyrolysis to heat the reactor and minimize process utilities. The plant will be located in Colorado, home to the largest stockpiles of waste tires in the country. The byproducts of tire pyrolysis, such as tire-derived oils, limonene, char, and steel wire, offer diverse opportunities in the chemical industry and renewable energy sectors. With the large number of tires discarded annually in the US, our research investigates the economic feasibility of conducting pyrolysis to extract limonene and three fractions of diesel-like oils to sell. This integrated approach positions itself at the intersection of environmental sustainability and economic viability.