GDT’s initial pilot production facility at Warren in Western NSW
“We are able to convert this wasted resource and an environmental hazard into high demand valuable raw materials”
It begins by loading end-of-life tyres into a process chamber, which is evacuated of air and sealed. Heat is then applied which acts as a catalyst for a chemical reaction, this sees the tyre de constructed into different compounds, one of which is condensed into manufactured oil. GDT claims to have zero waste from the tyre. The oil has undergone rigorous testing at the Queensland University of Technology’s (QUT) Biofuel Engine Research facility, although scientists there admitted they were a little sceptical at first. GDT collaborated with QUT mechanical engineer Professor Richard Brown and PhD student Bangladeshi-born Farhad Hossain
to test the oil for emissions and performance at the QUT Biofuel Engine Research Facility. The QUT team tested the oil that, when blended with diesel in small percentages, gives a fuel that reduces emissions and with no loss of engine performance. The percentage of fossil fuel was varied during the tests and will continue to be in subsequent testing. “So we think maybe it will be bad, but we got very good results,” researcher Farhad Hossain says. QUT mechanical engineers tested the oil that, when blended with diesel in small percentages, gives a fuel that reduces emissions and with no loss of engine
performance. The percentage of fossil fuel was varied during the tests and will continue to be in subsequent testing. The QUT team tested the tyre-oil blends in a six-cylinder diesel engine and found exhaust emissions from the oil had 30 per cent less nitrogen oxide, which of course contributes to photochemical smog, while the rubber derived oil also had a lower particle mass than oil from fossil sources, but almost the same performance, according to the QUT research. GDT has operated a pilot plant in Warren in Western New South Wales since 2009 and the upgrade plans to a full production plant will see it capable of processing 19,000
tonnes, or a mix of 658,000 car and truck tyres per year. “We have been studying the logistics of how to handle those extra-large ‘off the road’ tyres (OTRs) that are used by heavy duty mining dump trucks, large agricultural tractors and road making equipment,” says Trevor Bailey. “The 2013-14 Hider Report estimated that each year there are 155,000 tonnes of these OTR end-of-life tyres of various sizes generated in Australia alone, of which 79.4 per cent are left on site as there are no means of recycling them,” he added. GDT attended the international mining industry expo in Las Vegas in September
and found enormous interest in the process from other countries with the same oversize tyre disposal problem, such as Canada, the United States, Mexico, Brazil and the other South American countries where mining is a major industry. “GDT plans to have the first fully operational commercial plant delivering eight million litres of oil from recycled tyres per year commencing mid way through this year, followed by the first in the world mining tyre processing plant in either QLD or WA,” Mr. Bayley said. GDT developed the new tyre recycling technology in Australia and became Australia’s first ever nominee in the
International Edison Awards in the USA last year, winning a bronze medal in what is the world’s top award for innovation. “There are 1.5 billion tonnes of tyres discarded globally each year and Australia alone generates around 55 million disused tyres a per annum, while the USA generated more than 200 million,” says QUT researcher Hossain. “Getting rid of old tyres in an environmentally-friendly way is a universal nightmare for authorities. Stockpiles of used tyres around the world are a health hazard, as demonstrated by the huge tyre stockpile fire in Broadmeadows on the Northern outskirts of Melbourne last year. The fire proved
Tyres being loaded into the process chamber at the GDT pilot production plant in Warren
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