Technology

Rubber Devulcanization

All Tyromer
facilities are
ISO 9001:2015
Certified

No chemicals or
additives used in Tyromer’s devulcanization process

When rubber is formed into a tire, it is vulcanized. This is a process where the rubber is mixed with sulfur and exposed to heat. The result is a hard, durable rubber product – the tires we know today. Vulcanized rubber is difficult to reuse because it cannot be easily reformulated or remixed – but that’s exactly where Tyromer devulcanization gets to work.

Simple is Better. Tyromer’s patented devulcanization process is straightforward – Crumb rubber is fed into the extruder, and devulcanized rubber is extruded out. No chemicals added, no additives at all.

The chemistry is more complicated but can also be explained. We use a supercritical carbon dioxide assisted, thermal-mechanical extrusion process to continuously convert scrap tire rubber into Tire-Derived Polymer, or TDP. A technical explanation written by Tyromer technology inventor Professor Costas Tzoganakis is available in this RubberWorld Magazine article.

Tyromer

Devulcanization

In the video to the left you can see crumb rubber being fed into the extruder in the size of about 20 mesh. The resulting product is our devulcanized rubber, TDP.

The product/packaging form of TDP can vary – in this video, the form is a continuous strip. However, slabs of 10kg are the most common form. Some facilities also offer rubber straining where the devulcanized TDP is pushed through a fine mesh screen to filter out any remaining particulate. The Tyromer Windsor and Tyromer Europe facilities both have straining capability and produce 10kg slabs.