Technological and economical aspects of the pyrolysis of end-of-life tyres and the refining of the products obtained

On the basis of literature review (72 references) the necessity to solve the world problem of growing amounts of rubber wastes, especially end-of-life tyres (Table 1), has been justified. The methods of their recovery and recycling as well as legislative and economical conditions in this area (Table 2) were presented. Past methods of used tyres' pyrolysis were discussed. Various techniques of the process (vacuum one, in gas-solid or liquid-solid systems) were presented with the characteristics of the products obtained and their possible applications (Table 3). The new trends in the investigations [plasma pyrolysis, pyrolysis in the presence of the catalysts (zeolites)] were also mentioned. Profitability assessments of selected technological solutions of pyrolysis have been done. Global companies producing the pyrolysis plants as well as various constructional solutions of pyrolytic furnaces were presented.