Tire recycling technologies: What is the future?

Recycling is a heavily discussed topic nowadays, and recycled tire material to be re-used for the same application is one of the spear points of current R&D activities. Regarding the immense amount of used tires, more than just one outlet for the recycled material is needed. Besides the commonly used particulate and reclaimed rubbers, devulcanizates are another alternative currently under development. As the name indicates, devulcanization is the reverse of the vulcanization step: mainly crosslinks are broken and the polymer remains intact. This leads to a recycled material with properties closer to the original ones compared to reclaim. The latter is produced in a non-selective process, in which the whole crosslinked polymer network is broken, including scission of the polymer chains. A devulcanization process for passenger car tire rubber is developed step by step, starting with the single polymers contained in a tire, and finally finishing with whole tire granulate. The devulcanizate will be put in a broader frame of different recycling options for tire rubber and their potential