LD Carbon and TRS sign an agreement for a joint-owned TyrXol rubber powder processing plant
LD Carbon, the South Korean waste treatment and raw material recycling company, which has developed a proprietary pyrolysis technology and TRS, a circular economy technology developer and integrator that offers global solutions to produce high-performance sustainable products from end-of-life tyres, have announced that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the implementation of a first factory to produce TyreXol rubber powders coming from the TRS Water Pulse process. The remainder of End-of-life tyres after TyreXol production is to be utilised by LDC to produce tyre pyrolysis oil (“TPO”) and high-quality recovered Carbon Black (“rCB”) whose quality has already passed the assurance tests from various global tire manufacturers for commercial adoptions.
TRS has a process of water jetting that treats only the tyre tread to recover high quality materials. The carcass and sidewalls are then processed separately, in this case, by LDC through pyrolysis.
The new endeavour will enable the partners to crystallise major technical and commercial synergies as well as, for TRS, to bring production capacity to meet the pressing demand from TRS customers in Asia. Initially, the plant will process 25 ktpa end-of-life tyres, yielding a volume of 5 ktpa TyreXol Water Pulse powder, which has already passed quality assurance tests from global end customers such as tyre manufacturers, who are accelerating commercial adoptions of TyreXol Water Pulse powder.
“We have been screening many companies globally that could enhance our product range and further differentiate the value-in-use that we bring to tyre manufacturers. We are thrilled to collaborate with TRS. Not only are our technologies complementary, but they have a deep understanding of the market, and we share the same ethical and professional values,” said Baek, Seong-Mun, CEO and co-founder of LDC.
Staffan Ahlgren, CEO and co-founder of TRS commented; “This collaboration is very important for developing additional real circular solutions for the tires and rubber industries. The collaboration was born from months of discussions, which helped us develop a deep mutual respect. It will be an accelerating step enabling us to supply Asian clients regionally and focus on our water-jet technologies in priority.”