An East Midlands entrepreneur has applied for a patent to turn old tyres into diesel.
UTD Research, led by Paul Archer, has built a prototype plant near Wrexham that is set to process up to two million used tyres a year.
UTD's process is called continuous reductive distillation: old tyres are broken up into fist-sized chunks and then heated in an oxygen-deprived atmosphere until the volatile constituents separate from the carbon and steel solids.
Some of the gases given
off are recycled to power the heating process, but most are condensed into oil.
From two million tyres per year, the Wrexham plant can produce 6.5 million litres of crude.
"The EU ban on dumping old tyres in landfill sites, coupled with the recent hike in crude oil prices, means that our process is economically viable," says Archer.
Within five years, UTD plans to have three plants operational in the UK.
Of the 40 million worn tyres discarded every year, 28% are landfilled or stockpiled.
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