Major news for the tire pyrolysis sector: Bridgestone EMEA (Bridgestone) has announced a new partnership that will create a closed-loop tire-to-tire recycling system. Bridgestone's partners in the venture are Versalis (Eni's chemical unit) and Grupo BB&G, a Portugal-based pyrolysis company. Under the agreement, end-of-life tires will be recycled by BB&G into tire pyrolysis oil (TPO), which will be used by Versalis to produce synthetic elastomers for the production of new Bridgestone tires.
The partnership will leverage BB&G’s thermomechanical process of pyrolysis to recycle end-of-life tires on a commercial scale. BB&G has built and operated two generations of pilot plants in the past 10 years and has also recently commissioned its first commercial scale tire pyrolysis production to validate the feasibility and quality outputs of the process. BB&G’s TPO unit is located in Fatima, Portugal and started up in July 2024. Over the next few months, BB&G will begin supplying TPO to Versalis for the production of circular elastomers that Bridgestone will use to create a first batch of tires in early 2025.
Versalis has been developing circular technologies and processes through polymer recycling. This includes complementary mechanical and chemical recycling. The company is also engaged in the diversification of feedstock, with both renewable sources and secondary raw materials.
Martin von Wolfersdorff has an excellent video on the project over at LinkedIn.
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