It's rare that we're going to sit down and write up an article about our neighbors to the north, but some things are just too good to not talk about.
In Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, a plant is currently under construction that will use an advanced technology to extract oil from used tires, along with other valuable byproducts.
Environmental Waste International is responsible for the technology facility, which will be using a microwave delivery system that breaks down tires at the molecular level, reducing them to their simplest forms -- oil, carbon black, steel and hydrocarbon gasses. Running at a planned recycling rate of 300,000 tires a year, the facility is expected to produce a whopping 240,000 gallons of oil, two million pounds of carbon black and 600,000 pounds of steel annually. The gases produced by the system would be used to co-generate electricity that allows the system to be energy self-sufficient.
"There's a tremendous amount of interest in our process with many potential purchasers eager to see the system up and running," says Stephen Simms, president and CEO of Environmental Waste International.
Reverse Polymerization is the patented technology used in the system. Unlike any other kind of tire recycling process in the world, it does not melt them, but rather breaks it apart at the molecular bonds, allowing virtually 100 percent of the tires' byproducts to be reclaimed.
Ellsin Environmental is the owner of the facility and contracted Environmental Waste International to design and build the prototype equipment for the plant, which will have a total cost in excess of $6 million. Environmental Waste will build all future Ellsin systems and receive a royalty for each tire processed. Operations in the Sault facility are expected to begin in the first quarter of 2011.
Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Stephen Simms, Environmental Waste International
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