THE HISTORY BEHIND OUR PYROLYSIS PLANT

Having the accolade of being designers, engineers, owners, and operators of the UK’s first continuous pyrolysis plant for end-of-life tyres is not one that we take lightly.

Now just days away from the plant becoming fully operational on a 24/7 basis, we take a very quick look at how it started, how we got to where we are today and a few key milestones in between.

Ten years ago

This was when our CEO, Mark Pepper, first began to consider ways of dealing with waste tyres in an environmentally responsible way. As a 3PL provider many tyres were used every year on the Carlton Forest fleet. He began to research ways in which they could be utilised and happened upon pyrolysis, not a new technology by any means, but perhaps one that hadn’t been fully explored where waste tyres were concerned.

Seven years ago

Mark’s exploration had led him to IRR Manufacturing, a South African company that had been successfully pyrolysising tyres for several years and who were also the designers and manufacturers of the pyrolysis kiln. Mark began working with them, together with a recycling engineer, and in the next couple of years successfully acquired the company to become the manufacturing division of his company IRR Waste to Energy.

Three years ago

Working with the South African team, the first kiln was installed at Worksop and became operational for a short period of time. Pleasingly, this period showed that the scale on which it could operate could be increased, thereby removing more waste tyres from the UK market. To allow modifications to realise this increase to be carried out, the plant ceased operations. Then design, engineering, and the manufacturing of a second kiln and all its component parts to make the operation truly circular began. The small issue of a global pandemic somewhat prohibited the speedy execution of the project however this challenging period has been successfully navigated.

Now

The technical team from South Africa is based in the UK and employed by Carlton Forest Renewables and the plant has been re-engineered into a plant that process 1 tonne of tyre crumb (tyres which have been de-fluffed and de-wired and chipped) each hour. Uniquely, is that it produces around 4 million litres of Tyre Pyrolysis Oil (TPO) each year and around 2,800 tonnes of carbon char.

The future

It’s an exciting future as full operations begin, and our joint venture programme begins to be rolled out with our small-scale plants deployed in strategic locations across the country.

Should you be interested in reaping the benefits of a joint venture that offers sustainable and environmental credentials please contact our Chief Commercial Officer, Adam Jones:adam.jones@carltonforestgroup.com