Wastefront’s waste tyre project boosted with slick €2 million grant

Norwegian waste tyre recycling company Wastefront AS has announced a €2 million grant, it’s part of a collaboration with Swedish chemical engineering company Hulteberg Chemistry & Engineering AB.

The two companies join forces on an oil purification project HYFUEL which purifies pyrolysis oil - the oil extracted from tyres which have rolled their last kilometre. 

The €2 million grant comes, in part, from funding R&D programme Eureka Eurostars, and the Norwegian Research Council and the Swedish Innovation Agency. The total project-funding amounts to €2.076 million - €1.038 million from Eurostars and €1.038 million from project partners. 

The funds will be used to further develop the use cases of the renewable biofuel, Tyre Derived Oil (TDO), extracted from end-of-life-tyres (ELTs). HYFUEL’s optimised tyre pyrolysis oil can be used as a substitution for diesel fuel without the need for further refining.

Due to the fact that HYFUEL can be used without a high temperature application, it is cost saving, and more environmentally friendly due to its low carbon emissions.  

“We’ve been very excited about this project, and we feel privileged to be closely collaborating with Hulteberg, a company with vast experience in standard-bearing renewable projects. The purification of pyrolysis oil is a critical next step for our industry as we strive to implement greener, more efficient ways to utilise end-of-life-tyres, which too often still end up in landfills or being burnt in cement kilns,” said Henrik Selstam, CTO of Wastefront.

“Ground-breaking projects like this, underpinned by collaboration, innovation, and intent at their core, are undoubtedly the key to realising the net-zero transition at the pace the future of our planet so clearly requires,” he added.

Founded in Oslo in 2019 Wastefront uses pyrolytic reactors that utilise thermal depolymerisation known as ‘pyrolysis’ to break down a tyre’s materials at elevated temperatures thus producing recovered carbon black (rCB).  rCB can then be recycled back into tyre production or used for mechanical rubber goods or as a filler for plastics.  

Wastefront is building a £100 million tyre recycling plant in Sunderland in Northern England with plans to be fully open operational by 2025. The South Tyneside plant will produce rCB from a supply of 20% of the UK’s yearly total of ELTs. By integrating Wastefront’s rCB into new tyres, the emissions for each tyre subsequently produced will be reduced by 80%.

“We’ve been continually impressed with the forward-thinking vision Wastefront has conveyed for tyre recycling ever since its inception, so the decision to partner with them on this innovative and trailblazing project was an easy one,” said Christian Hulteberg, founder and Managing Director of Hulteberg. “We’re confident our collaboration can pave the way for even more advanced processes for the utilisation of ELTs, and present a significant opportunity to preserve our planet’s natural resources with a renewed emphasis on circularity.”