Blog

Jan 15, 2024

Turning tyre waste into fuel

Leube Zement, is one of Europe’s oldest cement factories, with more than 20

Leube Zement, is one of Europe's oldest cement factories, with more than 20 years’ experience making and using tyre-derived fuel. Christian Wörgötter, Head of Asset Management and Maintenance at the St Leonhard-plant, shares the company's experience.

The world is projected to generate about one billion end-of-life-tyres (ELT) each year, according to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development's Tyre Industry Project, 2018.

While ELT pose a challenge for the path to a circular economy, but they also offer huge potential – not least in the search for alternative fuels.

Burning shredded ELT as fuel, or tyre-derived fuel (TDF) has been used in the cement industry for many years with good reason. When burned, TDF has almost the same heat value as oil, is 25 per cent more effective than coal and most cement kilns don't need to be modified to use TDF.

Companies are also reaping the financial benefit for collecting and disposing of tyre waste. This, combined with rapidly rising energy costs and environmental awareness, has led to an increase in use of TDF.

A modern tyre shredder

Leube Zement is one of the oldest producers of cement in Europe. The Leube company was founded in Ulm in 1838. The cement plant in St Leonhard, Austria, was bought in 1864 and has been used for cement production since.

The Leube cement plant in St Leonhard started processing ELT to shreds in 1998. It had tried to buy shreds from other companies for a short time but realised that buying TDF would never work due to delivery problems. The company installed its first tyre shredder and began manufacturing TDF in-house. It's now producing about 5000 kilograms of TDF an hour – about 6000 metric tonnes a year.

"Scrap tyres have the advantage of a high calorific value and are easily accessible," says Christian Wörgötter, Head of Asset Management and Maintenance at the St Leonhard cement plant. "As such, they pose an attractive alternative to expensive fossil fuels such as coal and oil. Furthermore, as opposed to other substitute fuel, tyres don't add any chlorine, no matter if you use passenger car tyres, truck tyres or even tractor tyres."

Christian says cement is sensitive to chlorine contamination. Even small amounts of materials such as PVC or packaging containing salt in refuse-derived fuel can bring the chlorine content above the 0.1 per cent maximum threshold.

The right solution

Christian first came across Eldan Recycling at a fair in Dortmund in 2017 where he was on the lookout for a new tyre shredder.

"In general, the two-shaft shredder we were using was worn out after 20 years of operation. It practically ripped the tyres apart, often resulting in massive blockage and wire entanglement," he says.

He says Leube was on the lookout for a tyre shredder that was easy and economical to maintain, could fit within its 100 per cent automatic set-up with as little modification to the plant as possible, and could be fed with its existing crane.

Denmark-based Eldan Recycling made its first shredder to cut tyres for TDF in the 1970s when the oil crisis gave a local gardener the incentive to look for alternative ways for heating his greenhouses.

He collaborated with Eldan to modify its existing cable shredder to cut the tough tyres, paving the way for further innovation in the field. Today, Eldan is one of the world's largest suppliers of tyre shredding and recycling equipment with solutions for everything from TDF-production to making fine, steel and textile-free rubber granulate and powder.

"All other suppliers said they could only make the required shred size when building in a screening area after the shredding area, and they also needed a return conveyor to the shredder for the oversize," Christian says. "This would not only require a lot of modifications and potentially an additional employee to handle the TDF, but also additional investment in equipment, with the added maintenance and spare parts that follows."

Eldan suggested a Super Chopper SC2109 – the largest single-shaft Eldan shredder with nine rotor knives providing the cutting force on the tough material. It can be supplied with screening bars for shreds down to about 100-200 millimetres, and can be prepared for feeding by crane, belt conveyor, or a tyre-feeding silo depending on the customer's requirements.

"When I saw the Eldan machine, I liked it much better," Christian says. "The tyres are cut, and the cutting equipment is easily maintained, so you always have a proper cutting edge. This is especially important if you have truck tyres with finger-thick bead wires that are impossible to rip apart."

With the Eldan Super Chopper, Leube kept its existing automatic crane set-up, although technicians from Eldan and Leube did some modifications of the feeding section to optimise the automatic function of the system.

Leube continued to produce the required TDF size of 100-200 millimetres without additional screening equipment and return conveyors, or the need to hire additional personnel.

The tyres are cut rather than ripped apart, ensuring less wire entanglement and a cleaner cut shred. Maintenance time and costs were also reduced.

Christian says Leube now spends on average about 50 per cent of the costs in spare and wear parts compared to the former machine.

"We have had our old machine running for 20 years, and I assume that will also be possible with the Eldan Super Chopper," he says.

For more information, visit: www.eldan-recycling.com

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