Michelin leads the recycle tyre tech

local cement manufacturer and supplies about 50 percent of the market.

“Local manufacturing must compete fiercely with imports, and this investment allows us to continue doing just that. At the same time, we are providing local jobs and supply chain security for the domestic building, infrastructure, and construction industries,” Taylor says.

“Our cement already has around 20 percent lower emissions than imported cement and using tyres is part of the decarbonisation plan to reduce its footprint even further. It will also reduce our need for natural raw materials like iron sands,” says Taylor.

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Michelin leading the way to disrupt tyre industry

Michelin is investing in working with the recycling industry to encourage recovery and reuse of end-of-life tyres

The group in France is one of the founding members and shareholders of Aliapur, which has been collecting and processing end-of-life tyres for 14 years.

In 2017, Michelin acquired Lehigh Technologies, a US company specialising in the design and production of micronized, rubber powders (MRP) derived from recycled end-of-life tyres and other rubber-based industrial products.

Last year, through its partnership with the Swedish company Enviro, Michelin confirmed its commitment to a circular economy by making pyrolysis technology available on a larger scale and announcing the construction of its first plant to process end-of-life mining tyres in Chile.

The technology, patented by Enviro, transforms endof-life tyres into high-quality raw materials which can be reused in the manufacture of new products.

Michelin is providing a brand new end-to-end recycling solution that consists of collecting endof-life tyres from mining customer sites, transporting them to the plant to be cut and then pyrolysed and, ultimately, reusing the pyrolysis products in a variety of applications, including the manufacture of new mining tyres.

Located in Chile’s Antofagasta region, the new plant will be able to recycle 30,000 tons of earthmover tyres a year, or nearly 60 percent of such tyres scrapped every year nationwide.

More than $30 million will be invested in building Michelin’s first new-generation end-of-life tyre processing plant. Work will begin this year, with production scheduled to get underway in 2023.

The recycling plant will support the circular economy with innovative recycling processes. Scrap tyres will be collected directly from customer premises, then transported to the Lehigh Technologies designs and produces highly engineered recycled MRP, a high-performance, long-lasting, lowcost material that can replace other nonrenewable raw materials commonly used in the manufacture of tyres, plastics, asphalt and construction materials

plant to be cut up and recycled.

Enviro’s technology, which produces new, high-quality reusable materials like carbon black, pyrolysis oil, gas and steel, will enable everything in an end-of-life tyre to be recovered for reuse.

Current plans call for 90 percent of the recovered materials to be reused in a variety of rubber-based products, such as tyres, conveyor belts and anti-vibration products. The remaining 10 percent will be reused directly by the plant to generate its own-use heat and power.