Zeppelin Systems has been a reliable plant engineering partner for the rubber and tire industry for decades. On the path to a sustainable future for plant engineering, the company launched the Zeppelin Sustainable Tire Alliance in March 2023, to cooperate with international partners for the environmental future of tire production and tire recycling.
One of the members of this technology alliance is the Polish company ReOil, which built Europe’s largest pyrolysis plant for the recycling of old tires in 2015.
Now, Zeppelin Systems has been given an engineering contract for the construction of a second ReOil pyrolysis plant in Poland, scheduled to start in February 2024. The new 27-acre pyrolysis plant has tripled ReOil’s annual recycling capacity to around 60,000 tons per year.
At the two plants, continuous pyrolysis breaks down rubber from old tires into substances such as gas, oil and recovered carbon black (rCB). The recycled materials obtained are reused, for example, in the manufacture of textiles, new tires, rubber components, plastics, steel or aviation fuel. Since 2020 ReOil has recycled around 20,000 tons of old tires per year at the first plant.
“The aim is to offer process solutions in the future that can be provided as part of license models. For example, the ELT pyrolysis plant as a turnkey product from Zeppelin Systems,” said Dr Markus Vöge, CEO of Zeppelin Systems.
Guido Veit, vice president of plastic and rubber sales at Zeppelin Systems, said, “ReOil’s engineering contract is the first project as part of the Zeppelin Sustainable Tire Alliance. This makes us proud and demonstrates the strength of the alliance. In addition, we will continue to work hard to bring additional processes to technological maturity and strengthen the network in terms of the circular economy.”
