Sustainable Development Goals
Current Project Status:
OPERATIONAL | rCB Tolling | Testing Center | Built 2008 | Expansion Plans Under Development
Organizations Involved:
Klean Industries, Carbon Resources Recovery, KBR, Oregon DEQ, Rock Enterprises, Port of Morrow, Castle Tire
Services:
Design & Engineering, Turn-Key DBC, Due Diligence, Supply Chain Management, Carbon Management, Component Supply
The Challenge:
North America is one of the world's largest producers of end-of-life tires, currently generating over 300 million tires annually. Similar numbers are stockpiled, and monofils containing tens of millions of tires are not uncommon. These landfills are growing every day. Current markets for tire-derived products are all low-end applications, and state funding is usually required to provide a waste management solution for tire disposal.
The current challenge for many states is to reduce the burden on their taxpayer while recovering greater value from their wastes, either in the form of energy or recovered resources. Oregon has strict environmental regulations and is a hub for thermal processing technologies in the clean-tech sector. Oregon also generates significant volumes of waste tires. Currently, the biggest outlet for scrap tires is exporting tire-derived fuel ("TDF") for use in industrial power plants in Asia, which contributes to air pollution and sends valuable resources offshore. The State of Oregon also has some of the largest landfills in the Pacific Northwest, including tire monofills containing millions of tonnes of tires.
The Solution:
The core technologies in Klean's intelletctual property portfolio were developed in Japan in the early 1970s. Japan was the world's first country to commercially process end-of-life tires (ELT) using thermal technologies specifically designed to recover oil and energy from waste tires. The KleanTeam's know-how combined with ownership of IP for end-of-life tire pyrolysis and gasification technologies are proven with a smaller footprint, are more effecient (low energy usage), low mainatence (built to last) and produce better quality output products on a cosiant basis. Additional innovations in upgrading output products include the production of graphite, graphene, marine fuel and SAF. These key innovations are now being deployed globally with Klean licensing partners such as KBR.
Learn more about the Klean and KRB partnership >> GO.
n 2018, Klean Industries acquired a site in Boardman, Oregon, from the now-bankrupt ReKlaim Inc., which was formerly a partner in the Pyrolyx joint venture. This site was originally developed in 2008 as a $25 million tire pyrolysis testing facility (pilot plant). Since Klean's acquisition, it has been utilized for testing and tolling both recovered carbon black and tire pyrolysis oil. This facility has paved the way for numerous projects globally and has helped secure a multitude of offtake contracts that exceed the production capacity of several facilities around the world.
Post-COVID, Klean Industries has been collaborating with various partners to advance the expansion of this fully permitted facility, aiming to establish a new industry in the State of Oregon. This industry will produce high-quality, green commodities and energy from waste generated by the automobile sector, specifically scrap tires sourced from Northern California, Oregon, and Southern Washington.
Klean's planned expansion will not require subsidies and aims to offer a fully sustainable solution to the region's surplus of over 5 million scrap tires. The solution involves using Klean's patented advanced thermal conversion technology, which has been operating commercially in Poland since 2016, to recover fuel oil, steel, and refined carbon black. The high-quality end products will be comparable to virgin commodities, but they will be significantly more cost-effective and have a substantially lower carbon footprint.
In 2019, Klean further refined and expanded it's know-how and intelletcual property portfolio by acquiring additional and complementary technologies, such as the technology from Carbon Resource Recovery GmbH (CRR). The application of Klean's advanced thermal technologies to convert ELT waste into valuable industrial resources, offers significant long-term benefits to the the Boardman project and the State of Oregon.
Klean has secured enough ELT feedstock from its partners to run this project for over 100 years at full capacity. Klean's feedstock partners own a significant monofil with approximately 5m tonnes of scrap tires within a few hours from the Boardman facility. The business has been in operation for over 30 years and will be able to supply 160 metric tonnes of tires per day. Disposing of these unsuitable truck tire casings has an increasingly high cost, both environmentally and financially. Klean intends to change the tire recycling supply chain through this partnership and rapidly expand its tire capture capacity to neighboring states.
Klean has secured a fully permitted 8-acre site that backs onto an expansion option of an additional 10 acres behind the active site with 2 rail spurs, enabling excellent rail logistics to the coast. This site is under FEED to process 160 tons a day of scrap tires at full capacity; that's approximately 16,000 waste tires a day. Klean has designed this facility to be a North American flagship facility near Portland and significant highways for excellent product logistics for its tire feedstock and end-product distribution. Klean has long-term plans to roll out at least 15 facilities in the United States alone.
The Outcome:
Pending completion of this project, the result is the preservation of finite resources through the production of the following sustainable commodities (approximate volume):
If you would like to learn more about this project, please get in touch with us now >> GO.
