Thermal Recycling of Solid Tire Wastes for Alternative Liquid Fuel: The First Commercial Step in Bangladesh

The first small scale commercial tire waste pyrolysis plant has been installed by the Radiant Renewable Energy (RRE) Ltd. at Gazipur, Dhaka for reducing liquid fuel crisis in Bangladesh. The plant has two pyrolysis unit, each of them consists of a horizontal axis rotary type batch mode reactor with a recycling capacity of 4.5 tons/run. Solid tire wastes in half/whole size are feed into the reactor chamber, operating at 420oC with a light over-pressure of 0.03 bar. The reactor is heated externally by burning product pyrolysis liquids for first three hours and by burning product pyro-gas for rest five hours. The products distribution at optimum reactor operating condition were found oil: 45 wt%, char: 35 wt%, and gases: 10 wt%, in addition to the steel cords: 10 wt% of solid tire waste. The product liquids have been found to have a high gross calorific value (GCV) of around 44 MJ/kg, which would encourage their use as replacements for conventional liquid fuels. Pyrolytic char may be used as a solid fuel, activated carbon, priters ink etc. Pyrolysis gas contains high concentrations of methane, ethane, butadiene and other hydrocarbon gases with a GCV of approximately 37 MJ/m3, a value sufficient to provide the energy required by the tire pyrolysis process. However, the presented plant should be followed some recommended pionts for better operation and its further extension, and also for our sincere corner to safe environment. The plant can be run only under continuous monitoring and consultancy support of a tire pyrolysis specialist team because of new technology and waste material concern.