Green Distillation Technologies clarifies its technological process

In the Australia, tire recycler Green Distillation Technologies, which has developed world-first technology that transforms old tires into oil, carbon and steel, has moved to try and remove some of the confusion about how their process is described. Their Chief Operating Officer Trevor Bayley has said that many people have described their process as ‘pyrolysis’ although there are very significant differences between what they do and what most people understand pyrolysis to be.

“Pyrolysis is a generic term used to describe a process and is defined by Wikipedia as the thermal decomposition of a substance in an inert atmosphere and it goes on to say that it can be alternatively known by a number of names, including ‘Destructive Distillation’, which is the term we use to describe our process. “Charcoal has been made by pyrolysis for thousands of years where the air to the burning wood is restricted, while coke is the result of pyrolyzing coal and carbon black from pyrolyzing oil.

“When it comes to old tires the charcoal, coke and oil examples have been treated as the starting point and the results of the process are a liquid, char, some gas and a residual ash, as the steel bead and reinforcing are usually removed at the start.

“This process has been refined and improved in advanced countries in Europe and the United States, but the major problem is that the liquid and carbon are of poor quality. In India and China a cut-price approach has meant that there are also significant greenhouse gas emissions that would be banned in Western Counties including Australia. “Tire derived fuel is also used as an oil or coal replacement in these and some other countries and this also creates noxious greenhouse gas emissions and is a waste of what should be an important energy resource”, he said.

Trevor Bayley said that the process pioneered by Green Distillation Technologies was developed from basic chemistry and the genius of GDT Technical Director Denis Randal and his more than thirty-five years of study and experimentation into organic waste streams. The expertise is in knowing how to get the chemical reaction to occur. Preparation is underway for the construction of the first commercial plant in Toowoomba, Southern Queensland for which a Development Application has been made to the relevant authorities as well as for a Queensland Government Resource Recovery Program grant.

The plant will be built at the Wellcamp Business Park and cost $10 million to construct and when finished will employ 15 to 18 permanent staff and local contractors during construction. Construction of the proposed plant is expected commence later this year. The volume of valuable recyclable material produced by the process is impressive and a typical 10 kg car tire will yield 4 liters of oil, 4kg of carbon, 2kg of steel, a 70kg truck tire will provide 27 liters of oil, 28 kg of carbon, 15 kg of steel and 4 ton oversize mining dump truck tire will yield 1.6 tons of carbon, 0.8 tons of steel and 1500 liters of oil.