From End-of-Life Tires To Car Door Handles

Companies close the recycling loop for ELTs

Pyrolysis technology firm Pyrum Innovations AG , is closing material cycles together with BASF SE and Mercedes-Benz AG, in a collaboration aimed at introducing a circular approach for end-of-life tires culminating in the manufacture of new automotive products and parts.

Under the partnership, Pyrum supplies  BAS with pyrolysis oil, which is used in combination with biomethane as a raw material in the production of virgin plastics for Mercedes-Benz vehicle components.

This year, the Mercedes Benz EQE and S-Class will be the first series-production models to be equipped with bow door handles manufactured using a combination of biomethane and pyrolysis oil made from scrap tires, instead of raw fossil resources.

The S-Class will also come with a crash absorber based on this combination of raw materials. As part of the front end, the part creates a more even distribution of the forces acting on the other car in a frontal crash. Forthcoming models such as the EQE SUV will be equipped with bow door handles made from this innovative plastic as well.

Looking to the future, the aim is to progressively increase the use of this more sustainable recycled material, and also to use chemical recycling in combination with the biomass balance approach for further plastic vehicle parts. The company is currently exploring suitable applications.

“We are rethinking the composition of all the materials in our vehicles,” Markus Schaefer, chief technology officer Mercedes‑Benz Group said. “We anticipate being able to chemically recycle several hundred tons of scrap tires from Mercedes-Benz vehicles every year and use the resulting plastic in our new vehicles.”

Commenting on the partnership, Pyrum CEO Pascal Klein said the use of the oil as the basis for the manufacture of Mercedes-Benz vehicle components showed the “high quality of the product.”

Pyrum and BASF have been collaborating since September 2020, when the German chemicals company became one of the largest investors in the recycler.

At the time, BASF said it would uptake most of the pyrolysis oil and process it into new chemical products via its ChemCycling project.

© Scrap Tire News, September 2022