Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 140 (2019) 25–53

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Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jaap

Efficiency and proportions of waste tyre pyrolysis products depending on the T

reactor type—A review
Witold M. Lewandowskia, , Katarzyna Januszewicza, Wojciech Kosakowskib
⁎

a
Faculty of Chemistry, Department of Chemical Apparatus and Theory of Machines, Gdańsk University of Technology, G. Narutowicza 11/12, PL-80-233, Gdańsk, Poland
b
Polmos Żyrardów Sp. z o.o. (ul. Mickiewicza 1-3), PL-96-300, Żyrardów, Poland

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: This article discusses the current use of different pyrolytic reactors, their constructions and operating principles
Tyre pyrolysis regarding the yields of main products of waste tyre pyrolytic recycling. Whether one makes a larger or smaller
Pyrolysers profit, or even a loss due to a surcharge being levied on waste tyre recycling, depends on the sale of the pyrolysis
Oil products (gas, char, oil), the proportions and market prices of which differ. The cheapest is gas, which can be
Gas
used as a source of technological heat of energetically self-sufficient pyrolysis or after purification, can be burned
Char
Construction and operation of reactors
in a boiler and converted into heat or electricity. Raw char is not expensive either. It requires upgrading and
then, as carbon black, can be re-used for the production of tyres or in the form of improved carbon can be used as
an absorber or catalyst. The most expensive is oil, containing mainly aromatic compounds, on the condition that
it will not be burned as diesel or liquid fuel. Hence, the oil yields obtained in various types of pyrolysers are
given.
This review of pyrolysis reactors is organised according to the criterion of charge movement in the reactor and
the means of bringing this about. Depending on the method and speed of movement of the load in reactors, they
are classified as fixed-bed and movable-bed reactors. The latter group is subdivided, depending on the method of
inducing this movement, into pneumatic (bubbling, spouted, circulating or transport fluidised beds), mechanical
(rotary kiln, rake, auger, ablative, stirred) reactors and reactors in which the charge moves under gravity.
This review focuses on the construction and operating principles of the reactors and the yields of the products
of pyrolytic thermal decomposition of scrap tyres. The summary and comparison of main product yields (oil/
gas/coal) obtained in different reactors and by different authors, presented in graphical and tabular form,
constitute a summary and supplement to this work.

1. Introduction
The pyrolysis of waste tyres is a familiar, widely discussed subject
[1–5], particularly regarding the influence of temperature, tyre shred
size, heating rate and feed residence time in the pyrolyser on yields of
pyrolytic products. Therefore, these issues will only be briefly men-
tioned in this article. The composition of each fraction of the three main
products obtained from waste tyre recycling, i.e. gas, liquid (oil) and
solid (char, steel and ash), depends not only on the given pyrolysis
conditions, but also on the type of reactor used. This review focuses on
the influence and performance of different types of reactor on the
proportions of pyrolytic products obtained, especially the yield of oil,
because of the valuable chemicals that can be derived from it. Although
the economics of waste tyre pyrolysis can also be improved by col-
lecting and processing the carbon in soot into activated carbon or by
converting the gas into electricity, the financial effects of this are less in
comparison with the cost of the oil components. The selection of the
optimal method for the utilization of waste tyres will, however, be
easier with a knowledge of the possible pyrolytic technologies and re-
actors to have. The creative transformation of this vast body of scien-
tific, technological, constructional and practical knowledge, related not
only to the pyrolysis of tyres, but also to biomass [6–22,93] and its
presentation in a condensed and affordable form is the most important
purpose of this work.
2. Classification of types of pyrolysis
Because historically biomass was the first raw material to be pyr-
olysed, the first classifications of pyrolysis and pyrolysers were also
made for biomass. Flash, fast, intermediate, conventional (see Table 1)

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: wlew@pg.edu.pl, wlew2@o2.pl (W.M. Lewandowski).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaap.2019.03.018
Received 11 January 2019; Received in revised form 12 March 2019; Accepted 26 March 2019
Available online 07 April 2019
0165-2370/ © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY-NC-ND/4.0/).
W.M. Lewandowski, et al. Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 140 (2019) 25–53

Table 1
Typical operating parameters and products during pyrolysis [32,123].
Pyrolysis modes Hot vapour residence time RTv Solid residence Heating rate HR Particle size Temperature Product yield
s Time RTs K/s mm °C %
s
Oil Char Gas

Flash >1 < 0.5 > 1000 < 0.2 450 -1000 75 12 35
Fast ˜1 ˜1 – – ˜500 75 12 35
– 0.5 – 10 10 – 200 <1 600-1000 50 20 30
Intermediate 10 -30 moderate – – ˜ 500 50 (in 2 phases) 25 25
Conventional – 450-550 0.1 – 1 5-50 300 – 700 30 35 35
Slow long very long – – ˜ 400 35 35 30
Torrefaction long long – – ˜ 300 vapours 85 15
solid vapours
Gasification short short – – 800 – 900 1–5 < 1% (all 95 – 99
burned)

pyrolysis reactors intended for the thermal decomposition of biomass
include the following types: those with a fixed, fluid, spouted, circu-
lating and vortex or transport bed that is moved and rotated pneuma-
tically, and those with ablative, centrifuge, auger or screw reactors set
in motion mechanically. Waste tyres, especially those from trucks,
containing a high amount of natural rubber, can also be regarded as a
form of processed biomass [6–8,10,12,23,24]. However, the mechan-
ical and thermal properties of whole or shredded tyres differ sig-
nificantly from the typical waste biomass from forestry or agriculture.
Therefore, biomass pyrolysis reactors are not addressed in this review,
unless they are similar to those used for pyrolysis of waste tyres.
There are many criteria for classifying pyrolysers. One is based on
the method of supplying thermal energy, where the source of this en-
ergy is:
• the heat of combustion of raw materials or pyrolysis products inside
the reactor,
• heat supplied to the interior by an inert gas or material,
• heat supplied by flue gases or electricity through the external walls
or from internal radiators.
• Another criterion is the reactor mode of operation, which can be:
• periodic (fixed bed) or continuous (fluidised bed),
• under atmospheric pressure, a vacuum [26–28,87], or overpressure
of inert gas, in the absence or presence of a catalyst [29–39].
• In the present work, pyrolysers are classified as shown in Fig. 1,
depending on how the raw material (powder, granules, pieces,
scraps or whole worn tyres) is forced to move inside them, i.e.
pneumatically, mechanically and gravitationally.
• The types of pyrolyser illustrated diagrammatically in Fig. 1 have a
key influence on oil and gas yields, and also on the composition and
quality of the third major product of pyrolysis – carbon black or
activated carbon. Pyrolysis oil is chemically a highly complex mix-
ture, especially that obtained from tyres containing aliphatic, aro-
matic, hetero-atomic and polar fractions. The gases are a mixture of
H2, C1–C4 hydrocarbons, CO2, CO, and H2S. The use of catalysts
during pyrolysis increases the proportion of hydrogen in the gas and
the number of aromatic compounds in the oil.
Table 1 summarises the mass yields of the three primary products –
oil, char and gas – under different pyrolysis conditions: residence times
of volatiles RTv and solids RTs in the pyrolyser, waste tyre heating rates
HR and, if the tyres are shredded, particle size and the thermal de-
composition temperature [40].
The data in Table 1 show that the product yields depend mainly on
the thermal decomposition temperature, the heating rate HR and the
residence time RT of oil vapours and solid products in the reactor. The
heating rate is influenced not only by the power supplied but also by the
particle size and thermal conductivity of the pyrolysed material. The
temperature affects the types of primary thermal decomposition reac-
tions of organic materials; prolonging the residence time in the reactor
increases the probability of secondary reactions, such as the conversion
of oil and char into gas, because the molecules present in the liquid and
the remaining solid body decompose to form smaller molecules that
enrich the gas fraction.

Fig. 1. Types of waste tyre pyrolysers [4,72,137].

26
W.M. Lewandowski, et al. Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 140 (2019) 25–53

From the point of view of oil production, tyre pyrolysis can be

classified into three main categories, depending on operating condi-
tions: flash, fast and conventional pyrolysis. Flash pyrolysis of organic
materials, involving high temperatures and rapid heating rates, is
promising, but in the case of waste tyres remains a future-oriented
process for the production of biofuels. The significance of conventional
pyrolysis, which takes place at low temperatures and low heating rates,
can now be treated as historical: it has been used for centuries to pro-
duce charcoal. But being technologically limited, it cannot be used for
the efficient production of good quality oil. In this situation, and also
ignoring torrefaction and gasification (listed in Table 1) as these pro-
cesses are unrelated to oil production, we now focus on the fast pyr-
olysis process.
Essential characteristics of fast pyrolysis include the precise ad-
justment of the reaction temperature, specific to a rough material, a
rapid heat transfer and heating rate, a short vapour residence time, and
the rapid cooling of vapours and aerosols for a high oil yield [24,41,42].

3. Reactors with a pneumatically displaced bed

Inert gas (N2, Ar, flue gas) has many tasks in the pyrolysis process.
First of all, it acts as a shield protecting the organic material from
oxidation. Secondly, its flow mixes the reaction environment, evens out
the temperature and concentration distribution, and discharges volatile
pyrolysis products. Sometimes, it is also a carrier of thermal energy.
The behaviour of the bed in the pyrolyser depends on both the inert
gas flow rate and the size and specific gravity of tyre particles. When
the inert gas flow is slow, the solid particles remain stationary in the
bed: this is fixed-bed pyrolysis. With an increasing gas flow rate, the
bed begins to swell and, once a certain threshold velocity has been
exceeded, a fluidised bed forms. Initially, this is a bubbling fluidised Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of the fixed bed pyrolysis in presence of N2 [46,47].
bed BFB, but further acceleration of the gas flow rate transforms the
process into a circulating fluidised bed CFB, as shown in Fig. 2. De-
Fluidisations, D (2.5·10-2 - 3.0) and u (0.09–1.0), and Jet spouted Beds,
pending on the gas flow rate, there may be two types of CFB: the first
D (2.5·10-5 - 4.5·10−3) and u (4.0–20.0) [45].
mode (a) in which the inert material remains in the bed, and the second
mode (b), in which the inert gas forces circular fluidisation of all solid
particles (inert material, batch, char and ash) in the bed. A yet faster gas 3.1. Fixed bed pyrolysers
velocity gives rise to the pneumatic transport of the solid substance in
the CFB. The fixed bed reactor is very simple in construction. At the la-
An interesting classification of two-phase (gas-solid) flow models as boratory scale of the process, the main part of it consists of a quartz
a function of the dispersion coefficient D, m2/s, and gas flow velocity u, tube; it can also be made of stainless steel. The fixed bed may be a
m/s, was given in [45]. That work specified and defined the following mixture of sand with waste tyre particles, but typically it consists only
models: Fixed Bed (for D ranging from 0.0 to 2·10−3 and u from 0.02 to of raw material. The process can be carried out in the presence or ab-
0.6, Conical Spouted Beds, D (5·10-4 - 6·10-2) and u (0.1 - 0.5), Fluidised sence of an inert gas.
Beds (Bubbling FB), D (1·10-3 - 0.6) and u (0.015 - 0.7), Cylindrical
Spouted Beds, D (1.1·10-3 - 4·10-2) and u (0.35 - 0.9), Large Particle 3.1.1. Vertical fixed bed reactors
Fluidisations (Circulating FB, D (9·10-4 - 3·10-2) and u (1.0–4.0), Fast The fixed bed reactor described by M. Islam et al. [46,47] is

Fig. 2. Classification of reactor beds depending on the gas flow rate [45,93].

27
W.M. Lewandowski, et al.
Fig. 4. Flow diagram for the fixed bed pyrolysis of scrap tyres at the pilot scale
[50,51].
illustrated in Fig. 3. The central part of the reactor was a heating
chamber, with a gravity feeder and double sluice on the top. Pyrolysis
took place in the flow of inert gas, preheated with an LPG burner; the
gas inlet was at the bottom of the reactor. The gaseous products went
directly to two ice-cooled condensers on the top. Also, on top of the
reactor was a char collection bag. The stainless steel reactor had a
diameter D = 0.10 m and a height H = 0.27 m. The stainless steel plate
at the bottom had 150 holes each 0.003 m in diameter.
The process took place at temperatures of 375, 425, 475, 525 or
575 °C, the duration of each experiment being 50 min. The process was
stopped when the brown gas changed into a colourless one [48,49].
Fig. 4 illustrates tyre pyrolysis in a tubular stainless steel batch re-
actor of diameter D = 0.48 m and height H = 0.99 m. The overall size
of the reactor was 2.49 m and the length of the shield was 0.61 m [50].
The process was carried out with maximum liquid production. The
reactor wall was made from two 0.002 m stainless steel sheets, with a
0.04 m thick insulation layer (glass wool) between them. At the bottom
of the reactor, a 0.20 m diameter tube was attached to remove char.
Five spiral tubes of 0.019 m diameter (three U-shaped and two semi-
hexagonal ones, not shown in Fig. 4) were placed inside the chamber to
improve fast heating. But the main heat flux is supplied to the reactor
by means of a fuel burner. This furnace has a hole in which the reactor
was placed, two openings for supplying solid fuel and four ports for
removing ash.
In another version of this fixed bed pyrolysis reactor, described in
[50], heat was provided by two oil or gas burners with a construction of
the tube within a tube type, installed on either side of the furnace.
Burners allow the flow of both compressed air through the 38 mm
diameter outer pipe and fuel through the 28 mm diameter inner pipe
with controlling screw [51].
The fuel flow through the inner tube was controlled by a screw. The
authors analysed the liquid fraction with properties similar to those of
light fuel oil. Three sizes of reactor were used in this type of pyrolysis:
pilot – 150 kg/h, small commercial – 1.500 kg/h and medium pilot
scale – 6.000 kg/h [50].
A fixed bed batch reactor of diameter D = 0.24 m and height
H = 0.36 m was used in tyre pyrolysis [51]. In this process, 3 kg of raw
material (tyres) were placed in the electrically heated reactor. The rate
of heating was controlled, the process temperatures being 450, 475,
500, 525, 560 and 600 °C. The nitrogen flow gas was preheated outside
the reactor and entered the reactor through a perforated ring at the top.
The gas fraction passed via a central tube a system of two water-cooled
condensers in which the heavy and light oil fractions were separated
from the gas, which was subsequently analysed.
Another fixed bed with a cylindrical reactor had a diameter
D = 0.19 m and height H = 0.24 m [52]. The laboratory scale reactor
had a tube at the top of the heating zone with a diameter of 0.042 m and
height of 0.18 m for discharging gaseous products into a water cooler.
The oil fraction was decanted into a separating funnel and analysed.
The authors demonstrated that the heating rate of this process
28
Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 140 (2019) 25–53
Fig. 5. Laboratory unit with a horizontal fixed bed reactor for the co-pyrolysis
of waste tyres/bituminous coal [44].
influenced the fraction yield. A faster heating rate gave a greater yield
of gas, and a larger amount of hydrogen in the gas. In contrast, the oil
yield decreased, possibly because of the prolonged period of time the
pyrolysis products spent in the RTv reactor, in which the gaseous pro-
ducts flowed through a centrally placed steel column. In conclusion, the
authors noted that the energy contained in truck tyres was almost ba-
lanced by the pyrolysis products. Regardless of the heating rate, the
amount of energy obtainable from pyrolysis of 1 kg of scrap tyres was
about 25.7 MJ from just the oil and gas products, and that ca 97% of the
chemical energy contained in the tyres could be recovered in the pyr-
olysis products.
3.1.2. Horizontal fixed bed reactors
The experimental setup for studying the slow co-pyrolysis of a
mixture of waste tyres (grain size 1–5 mm) and bituminous coal (grain
size 0.4–4 mm) at the laboratory scale in a horizontal fixed bed reactor
is illustrated in Fig. 5 [44]. The quartz reactor of length L = 0.5 m had
an outer diameter Dout = 0.1 m and an inner one Din = 0.095 m. One kg
charges of mixtures of coal with 0.0, 15.0, 30.0 and 60.0 wt% of waste
tyres were co-pyrolysed at a heating rate of 5 K/min up to a final
temperature of 900 °C with a soaking time of 30 min. Volatile products
from the reactor flowed into a water-cooled flask, while the remaining
ones passed into a vertical condenser with cooling water.
The study of waste tyre pyrolysis published by Mkhize et al. [53]
was also performed using a horizontal fixed bed quartz reactor of si-
milar dimensions (length L = 0.85 m, diameter D = 0.06 m). A 40 g
waste tyre sample was placed in the reactor, and pyrolysis was carried
out at 475 °C in an atmosphere. The main differences between the two
reactors described by Bicakova and Straka [44] and by Mkhize et al.
[53] are: the second reactor is an open tube with an inert gas (nitrogen)
flow, but the first one ([44] Fig. 5) is a closed tube without the inert gas
flowing through it.
A laboratory-scale, fixed bed stainless steel vertical reactor of dia-
meter D = 0.06 m and height H = 0.21 m was described by S. Ucar
et al. [54]. Temperatures of 550, 650 and 800 °C were generated by an
electric furnace in which the reactor containing 130 g of scrap tyre
samples was placed. Pyrolysis took place in a nitrogen atmosphere. The
gaseous products passed through four traps: two ice baths and two
containing a lead nitrate solution for capturing hydrogen sulphide. The
remaining gas intended for analysis was collected in Tedlar bags. The
amount of hydrogen sulphide in the gaseous fraction was determined by
filtering, rinsing and drying lead sulphide from the trap.
Two types of condenser were used: typical heat exchangers of the
tube-and-shell type, and water tower quenching, in which the hot vo-
latiles came into contact with water sprayed from a nozzle. In this case,
water was injected using the tube at the top of the tower, and heat
W.M. Lewandowski, et al. Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 140 (2019) 25–53

Fig. 7. Fixed bed catalytic pyrolysis with counter-current N2 flow [57].

in the liquid fraction.

Fig. 6. Two-stage fixed bed catalytic pyrolysis in the presence of N2 [55,56].
exchange took place in the middle of the tower [53]. Oil and water
were separated by decantation. After cooling, the water was re-
circulated during the pyrolytic process.
A similar technological concept was presented by Boxiong et al.
[58,59]. Inside an electrically heated furnace there was a quartz reactor
consisting of two tubes connected in series (dimensions: 1) diameter
D = 0.03 m, height H = 0.16 m; 2) diameter D = 0.019 m, height
H = 0.31 m). The process took place in two stages: first pyrolysis, then
catalytic decomposition. Heating was started without the tyre sample
until the temperature reached 400 °C; then with the sample, it was
continued for 30 min with a ramped heating rate of 10 K/min up to
500 °C until the end of the process. After contact with the catalyst,
gaseous products were passed through an ice/water trap, where the
light oil fraction was collected. No inert gas flow was used in these
experiments. The results of this investigation were similar to those of
Williams and Brindle [30,60], whereby the zeolite catalyst increased
the gas yield and reduced the liquid fraction yield.

3.1.3. Two-stage catalytic fixed bed reactors

The results published in [55] and [56] present a modification of the 3.1.4. Microwave fixed bed reactor
fixed bed reactor for catalytic waste tyre pyrolysis in a two-stage fixed The experimental quartz fixed bed reactor shown in Fig. 8 was used
bed. In the first chamber of the reactor shown in Fig. 6, pyrolysis of tyre to investigate the effect of the power level on the microwave pyrolysis
samples took place in an inert gas atmosphere (N2). Subsequently, of tyre powder. It had an outer diameter D = 0.60 m and height
gaseous products were forced down into the second part of the reactor H = 1.30 m. Each time approximately 30 g of the sample were placed in
in which catalytic reforming took place in the presence of water vapour. it. The heater was used to 30, 50 and 80% of its maximum power output
The laboratory scale experimental reactor of diameter D = 0.022 m and (900 W), i.e. 270, 450, 720 W [61]. The process took place with ni-
height H = 0.16 m was made of stainless steel. Both stages of this re- trogen as inert gas. In comparison with conventional pyrolysis, micro-
actor were heated separately by two external electrical heaters with the wave pyrolysis improved the quality of the products, and the liquid
option of controlling the temperature; pyrolysis was carried out at 500/
600 °C and reforming at 800 °C. In the experimental part the influence
of different ratios of Ni/Al2O3 catalysts and steam injection into the
batch on the yield of hydrogen, syngas and carbon production was
tested.
Yuwapornpanit and Jitkarnka in [57] catalytic pyrolysis in a fixed
bed reactor, but in contrast to [56], in which the flow of N2 was co-
current (Fig. 6), in this work the flow is counter-current (Fig. 7). The
pyrolysis of shredded and crumbed tyres took place in a stainless steel
reactor of diameter D = 0.10 m and height H = 0.15 m. The final
temperature of the process (500 °C) was maintained by means of an
external electrical heater. The sample was put into the reactor in a
special, easily removable cage. Pyrolytic gases were then carried by an
inert gas into a zeolite catalyst or, in experiments without a catalyst,
into ceramic beads placed in a wire container attached above the pyr-
olysis zone. Pyrolysis lasted for one hour, and the catalyst was activated
at 430–600 °C for 2 h. The results showed that the catalyst in the pyr-
olytic process increased the yield of gas but reduced that of oil. The Fig. 8. Fixed bed quartz reactor for studying the microwave pyrolysis of tyre
zeolite catalyst increased the yield of single-ring aromatic compounds powder [61,63].

29
W.M. Lewandowski, et al.
Fig. 9. Solar pyrolysis experimental setup with a horizontal quartz fixed bed
reactor [41].
fraction was rich in aromatics like limonene. The authors claimed that
microwave thermal decomposition applied thermal energy very quickly
and uniformly on the waste tyres with a short reaction time and high
heating efficiency. In effect, polymers such as rubber can be easily
heated, despite their low thermal conductivity. However, any vulca-
nised rubber must be sufficiently polar in structure in order to absorb
microwave energy at an appropriate rate enabling viable devulcanisa-
tion [62–65].
3.1.5. Solar fixed bed reactor
Zeaiter [41] mentions another horizontal quartz tubular fixed bed
reactor. This was filled with ca 1 g of ground, scrap tyres together with
a cotton glass catalyst (acidic zeolites or TiO2; in a 0.3 ratio to the tyre
sample) and continuously purged with nitrogen. Since the source of
pyrolytic energy in this study was solar irradiance (about 1000 W/m2),
the 0.2 m long quartz tube was placed at the focal point of the con-
centrator in the form of a flat rectangular (0.91 m × 0.69 m) Fresnel
lens continuously adjusted to face the sun by the use of a tracking
system with two bipolar stepper motors controlled by a microprocessor
and sun tracer motion via LEDs (Fig. 9). Six photo resistors installed on
the Fresnel lens with a stepper motor allowed the sun to be tracked and
increased the concentrator yield by as much as 40%. The main part of
the reactor was the Fresnel lens made from an acrylic material resistant
to high temperatures up to 977 °C; the system had an automated sun
tracker. The oil yield was determined by weighing the cotton glass
before and after pyrolysis. Gas and the carbon residue efficiency were
determined similarly by weighing the reactor with the catalyst before
and after each experiment [41].
3.1.6. Fixed bed reactors for the pyrolysis of whole waste tyres
Pyrolysis of whole tyres is a problematic technological process, as it
has to be done quickly and at high temperatures: the difficulty lies in
the low thermal conductivity of tyres. What is more, pyrolysis should be
in constant progress, but technically it is difficult to load tyres into the
main reactor while at the same time continuing pyrolysis in the absence
of oxygen (atmosphere). However, grinding the tyres before pyrolysis
has proved to be too energy consuming and therefore economically
unviable.
One of the more interesting pyrolytic recycling plants in Poland is
that used by the “DS. Reecology” company from Zielona Góra (Poland).
In this plant, pyrolysis occurs in the absence of air, removed by the flow
of inert gas (N2 or exhaust) at atmospheric pressure. The semi-con-
tinuous process takes place in three reactors (Fig. 10), which are run
with a time delay so that the product streams are continuous: as one
reactor cools down, spent tyres are loaded into the next one.
The most important components of the system are the three fixed
bed reactors, separator and storage tanks (Fig. 10). This pyrolyser is
adapted to process both shredded and whole tyres [24].
A very similar technology for the pyrolytic recycling of whole tyres
but using four reactors has been developed by another Polish company
Konmech PPH from Bojano near Gdańsk. The longitudinal section of the
fixed bed reactor patented by Konmech PPH [66] for the pyrolysis of
ten whole tyres is shown in Fig. 11. From one 6 kg tyre an average of
30
Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 140 (2019) 25–53
2.2 litres of oil fraction, 0.5 m3 of gas, 2.5 kg of coal and 1 kg of scrap
metal can be obtained. One three-hour cycle, excluding the cooling
time, consumes ca 35 kWh of electricity (Fig. 11).
Neither of the above-mentioned pilot plant technologies for re-
cycling intact tyres have received the required certificates from the
environmental conservation authorities owing to protests from nearby
residents; hence they have not been implemented on an industrial scale
in Poland.
An interesting technology for pyrolysing whole tyres in liquid zinc
or molten salts as a heat transfer material is described in [67,68]. Be-
cause the tyres are not set in motion (fluidised, screw, rotary), this
technology is described in the section relating to fixed bed reactors
(Fig. 12).
The liquid heated medium (molten zinc or salt) adheres to the im-
mersed tyre all over its surface, thus increasing the rate of heat ex-
change and velocity of pyrolysis. The pyrolysis products undergo se-
paration. Steel sinks in the medium, the recovered carbon black floats
on it, and the gaseous products are flushed out of the U-shaped reactor
with a stream of nitrogen through the left leg (the pyrolysis chamber – a
125 mm diameter tube), which is closed to the atmosphere. In the other
open leg (metal recovery chamber), also a tube but with a diameter of
100 mm, the steel cord is collected, which has migrated down the
sloping bottom of the reactor.
The fixed bed contains 2.2 l or 14.3 kg of granulated zinc, and the
bottom of the reactor slopes at 45°. The pressure in the reactor is
monitored, as is the influence of the inert gas on the chamber con-
centration of gaseous products, which are continuously moved to the
condenser. Heating is by LPG gas outside the reactor, and the tem-
perature of the process is between 450 and 470 °C. Laboratory scale
experiments have demonstrated that the sink-float separation of carbon
(ρ = 1800–2100 kg/m3) and steel (ρ = 7400–8000 kg/m3) with the use
of molten zinc (ρ = 6508 kg/m3) is possible. Nevertheless, a demon-
stration scale test will have to be performed in order to prove that this
concept can also be of industrial importance.
A test bench with a prototype innovative reactor (Fig. 13) for the
pyrolysis of whole tyres at the laboratory scale is presented in [69].
Optimisation of reactor geometry using numerical analysis of tem-
perature and velocity fields, and simulations of the pyrolysis and the
results of an experimental study are included.
The cylindrical reactor consists of a base and a cover. A syphon
water closure (explosion-proof water system) is used to prevent air from
being sucked in or uncontrolled syngas discharge. The tyres are placed
on a platform inside the reactor, equipped with a central pivot im-
mersed in the water in the tank. The solid products (e.g. char, metal
residuals) and perhaps the oil remain on the base of the platform, while
the syngas is extracted through a conical hood.
The placement in the reactor of the radiators, their lack of contact
with the tyres and the low coefficient of thermal conductivity of the
tyres must have a negative impact on the speed of the pyrolytic process.
Therefore, there should be a greater volume of gaseous products than of
liquid ones. That this technology is aimed at syngas production is also
confirmed by the fact that water vapour present in the reactor reacts at
a high temperature with the coal residue after pyrolysis (Table 2).
3.2. Fluidised bed pyrolysers
The fluidised bed was invented by Fritz Winkler in 1921 and soon
began to be used for the gasification of coal. However, it was not until
the early 1960s that Douglas Elliot had the idea of using fluidised beds
to burn coal [70,21]. At the end of the 20th century, the fluidised bed
also began to be used for the combustion, gasification and pyrolytic
decomposition of biomass, wastes and scrap tyres. Fluidised bed pyr-
olysis, in contrast to fixed bed pyrolysis, is a continuous process and is
therefore very popular, particularly in commercial plants.
W.M. Lewandowski, et al. Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 140 (2019) 25–53

Fig. 10. Pyrolyser with fixed bed reactors for recycling waste tyres [24].

Fig. 13. Reactor for the pyrolysis of whole tyres [69].

3.2.1. Bubbling fluidised bed pyrolysers

Fig. 11. Fixed bed reactors for recycling whole waste tyres [66].
Fig. 12. Laboratory scale U-shaped fixed bed reactor for the pyrolysis of whole
tyres [67], [68].
The bubbling fluidised bed (BFB) is also known as the classic flui-
dised bed. The superficial velocity of fluid flow in the bubbling fluidised
bed is above the minimum fluidisation velocity, but below the terminal
velocity of the particle. An initially stationary fixed bed of solid parti-
cles, located in the bottom part of the reactor, is brought into a fluidised
state by the carrier gas, supplied through a distributor located below
the sieve bottom: the bed particles are kept in suspension at fluidisation
velocities between 0.5 and 3.0 m/s. The construction of the sieve
bottom, consisting of numerous nozzles or openings for their proper
dimensions according to the rate of inert gas flow, should be enabled to
create a bubbling fluidised surface. The space above the bubbling
fluidised bed surface, most often with a larger diameter than the bed, is
called the freeboard [71]. In this kind of fluidisation, the raw material is
commonly let into the bed or above it. Besides higher oil yields ranging
between 70 and 75 wt%, BFBs also exhibit consistent performance and
product quality [72].
In small laboratory fluidised bubbling beds, vapour residence times
can be as low as 0.5 s. However, commercial fluidised beds work with
vapour residence times larger than 3 s, and typically from 5 to 10 s [22].
Kaminsky and his co-workers from Hamburg were pioneers of
polymer and rubber pyrolysis testing in fluidised bed reactors, because
they were the first to investigate this method of thermal decomposing of
polymers. Hence, this approach is known as the Hamburg process [73].
Based on a scale-up, the study started from experiments performed in
three laboratory plants (70 g/h, 500 g/h and 300 g/h throughput of tyre
powder), then in a technical pilot plant with a 30 kg/h throughput of
tyre pieces, and ending at a semi-industrial pilot plant for whole tyres
with a 200 kg/h throughput [1,74–77].
The advantage and predominance of pyrolytic reactors over the

31
W.M. Lewandowski, et al. Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 140 (2019) 25–53

Table 2
Literature data parameters of batch bed reactors for the pyrolysis of spenttyres and rubber materials.
References Sca le Through put of Percentage of oil / gas / carbon T oC Type of material particle size Diameter, medium
[kg/h]

Reactors with fixed bed

[90] L 65.8(4.7v,29.6vv) /0.6 /33.4 425
63.4(8.3v,25.4vv) /2.7 /33.7 500
63.6(12.7v,22.7vv) /2.3 /33.7 550
62.3(15.7v,22.3vv) /3.0 /34.3 600
[43] L 15 g/ 42.6 / 11.1 / 46.3 450 waste tyres 1-3 cm2 pieces
100 min 50.0 / 9.3 / 40.7 570
[52] L 300 g 54.78/7.24/37.98 (HR 5) 800 powder of scrap truck tyres, size about 1 mm D = 0.19 m, H = 0.24 m,
49.02/13.12/37.86 (HR 10) N2 flow
44.67/16.81/38.52 (HR 15)
43.18/18.05/38.77 (HR 25)
[141] L 25-45 g 50.5 /10.5/39.0 (VN2 = 0.25) 420 6 scrap tyres Tubular reactor H = 1.25 m, N2 flow,
51.7/12.6/35.7 (VN2 = 0.25) 450 6 [mm] porous bed
57.0/7.3/35.7 (VN2 = 0.45) 420 6
52.1/12.5/35.4 (VN2 = 0.45) 420 6
36.0/13/51.0 (VN2 = 0.25) 420 16
42.0/12.7/45.3 (VN2 = 0.25) 450 16
51.9/13.4/34.7 (VN2 = 0.45) 420 16
62.0/2.8/35.2 (VN2 = 0.45) 450 16
42.0/16.8/41.2 (VN2 = 0.35) 400 10
53.0/12.9/34.1 (VN2 = 0.35) 460 10
36.0/17.1/46.8 (VN2 = 0.2) 430 10
55.4/8.11/36.5 (VN2 = 0.5) 430 10
58.52/9.9/31.5 (VN2 = 0.35) 430 2
51.25/12.1/36.7 (VN2 = 0.35) 430 20
50.8/16.6/32.6 (VN2 = 0.35) 430 10
[58] L 0.02 kg/h 50.47 /13.06/36,47 450 size of 8.0–10.0 mm tyres Quartz reactor
51.98/11.92/36.09 500 D = 0.03 m
52.61/11.7/35.69 550 H = 0.16 m
54.1/9.61/36.3 600
[59] L 0.02 kg/h 45.9/16.5/37.59 500 size of 8.0–10.0 mm tyres Quartz reactor
D = 0.03 m
H = 0.16 m
[142] L 50 g 38/29/33 500-600 tyre shreds with a particle size of 0.42 mm Quartz tube
L = 0.04m
D = 0.07m
Helium flow rate
[55] L 0.001 kg 38.6/14.3/43.3 600 size 6 mm, two stage pyrolysis with catalyst (gasification Stainless steel
[56] 33.1/30.6/44.5 700 process) 500 C first stage two stage reactor
31.9/39.8/41.7 800 Ni/Al2O3 catalyst D = 0.022 m
19.5/56.8/39.6 900 H = 0.16 m
[46] L 42 ± 2.3/8 ± 1.5/50 ± 2.8 375 motorcycle tyres H = 0.27 m
48 ± 2/9.0/45.0 425 size: D = 0.1 m
49 ± 1.3/10.0/41 ± 1.5 475 8 × 1 × 0.25 [cm]
48 ± 1.5/13.0/41.0 525 8 × 1 × 0.5 [cm]
42 ± 1.4/18 ± 1.5/41.0 575 8 × 1x1.5 [cm]
[54] 130 g/h 47.4(55.6) /7.4(7.6)/ 42.0(33.8) 550 1.5-2.0 mm of scrap passenger car tire (PT)/ (TT) truck D = 0.06 m, L = 0.2 m
HR = 7 K/min 48.4(56.0) /7.6(7.6) /41.7(33.8) 650 tire N2
47.2(55.1/7.8(8.8)/ 41.5(33.2) 800
[30] L 0.2 kg/h 55.8/6.1/38.1 500 tyre sample 1.0-1.4 mm D = 0.10 m, H = 0.15 m, N2 flow,
[60] 100 g catalyst- zeolite
[143] -/67.3/31.14 400 tyre size 0.9 mm
[41] 0.001 kg 42/28/30 (without catalyst) 550 3- 5 mm scrap tires, Sample with catalyst in 1: 0.3 Quartz tube reactor
weight ratio L = 0.02 m
[61] L 0.06 kg/h 37/14.15/48.85 415 tyre powder < 1 mm Quartz reactor
45/12/43 498 D = 0.06 m
40.5/18.5/41 574 L = 0.13 m
[116] L 6-8 g/ 58.0 / 4.0 / 38.0 HR of 5 K/min 850 tyre crumbs size smaller than 3 mm D = 0.02 m, L = 0.242 m
[144] 55.0 / 10.0 / 35.0 HR 5-80 K/min 300 shredded tyre V = 200 cm3, N2
600 101 kPa
720
[50] P 16.7 kg/h 48.5/13.8/37.7 500 tyre size [m]: Stainless steel;
L 48.4/15.3/38.1 500 0.16 × 0.11 × 0.03 H = 0.99 m
49/12.7/38.3 500 0.2 × 0.12 × 0.03 D = 0.4 m
46/16.5/37.5 500 0.2 × 0.11 × 0.025
53.0/17.0/35.0 475

Scale: L-laboratory plant, T-technical plant, P-pilot plant.

*
50 The average value of 5 measurements.
**
The result of calculations of experimental data using the commercially available Design Expert software program, version 8.0, StatEase Inc., Minneapolis, MN.
v
including aromatics C10 -.
vv
including tar C11 -.
n.i. –no information.
HR – heating rate K/min.
RT - resistance time s.
FR fibre residues.
VN2 – gas flow rate m3/h.
bold: results obtained during pyrolysis at ca 500 °C, compared in Fig.43.

32
W.M. Lewandowski, et al.
Fig. 14. Laboratory fluidised bed reactor for polymer pyrolysis [73].
other types are very good heat and mass transfer rates in the fluidised
bed and thus fast heating rates and constant temperatures, largely
uniform products, no moving parts in the hot region; in addition, they
are easy to seal in order to prevent air from entering the reactor.
Fig. 14 shows a diagram of a laboratory fluidised bed reactor with
external electrical heating. The experimental laboratory-scale installa-
tion for investigating the pyrolytic thermal decomposition of polymers,
rubbers and waste tyres in a fluidised bed includes, in addition to the
cylindrical, vertical reactor, a screw feeder with a vertical, internally
cooled, dispenser tube, a cyclone for removal the solid powder of black
carbon and ash, a condenser to recover the oil from the pyrolytic gas, as
well as nitrogen storage to serve the fluidised bed of quartz sand and to
prevent air from getting inside the reactor [73].
The study by Raj et al. [78] examines parameter optimisation using
a multi-variant experimental approach to maximise the oil yield and to
reduce the gas and char output in waste tyre pyrolysis. The equipment
for the experimental fluidised bed pyrolysis of shredded tyres was very
similar to the one shown in Fig. 14. The stainless steel tube reactor of
50 mm internal diameter was filled with sand (particle size 0.71–1 mm)
to a height of 0.3 m supported on the perforated base. The reactor was
electrically heated at a rate from 700 K/s to 1100 K/s so the particles
remained inside the reactor for less than one second. Fluidisation was
initiated by compressed air until a uniform temperature was obtained in
the bed, after which the air was replaced by nitrogen to prevent oxi-
dation and combustion. Only then were the shredded rubber particles
stored in the hopper fed into the reactor by means of a screw feeder,
which had a variable speed motor to vary the feed rate. Batches of
different particle sizes ranging between 0.3 mm and 1.18 mm, sorted
with the help of a sieve shaker, were fed at rates from 10 g/min to 25 g/
min. The pyrolysis experiments were conducted using designated pro-
cess variables: temperature (350, 400, 475, 500, 550 and 600 °C),
particle size (0.3, 0.48, 0.71, 1.0 and 1.18 mm) and feed rate (0.78,
1.05, 1.35, 1.50 kg/h) in accordance with the design of experiments
procedure (DOEs). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was then carried out
separately for each response model, such as oil, gas and char yield, in
order to study the influence of the process parameters. The commer-
cially available Design Expert software program, version 8.0, StatEase
Inc., Minneapolis, MN, was used to evaluate the experimental results, as
shown in Table 1. The results for the optimal parameters (475 °C,
0.74 mm and 1.05 kg/h) obtained using ANOVA gave optimum yields of
oil, gas and char: 40.8, 31.4, and 31.0 wt% respectively [78].
33
Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 140 (2019) 25–53
Pyrolytic laboratory equipment with a classic fluidised bed for the
gasification of waste tyre powders, likewise very similar to what is
shown in Fig. 14, was presented by Leung and Wang [79]. Except for
the dimensions and technological parameters, the only difference, a
minor one, was the position from which raw material was fed: in this
case, it was fed into the reactor from the bottom. In Sasse and Emig [73]
described a screw feeder placed above the cover that dispensed the
material by means of a cooled central tube from the top to the bottom of
the reactor (Fig. 14). The reactor, with an inner diameter of 0.1 m,
consisted of a lower part about 0.135 m in height, a middle section of
1.0 m height and an upper part 0.08 m high. The upper and lower parts
were constructed of heat-resistant stainless steel, but the middle was
made from a ceramic material. Only the ceramic tube was heated, by an
electrical jacket surrounding it, at a total rate of 20 kW. All the parts of
the reactor were well sealed and insulated with ceramic wool ca 0.3 mm
thick. In an experiment to study the effect of tyre particle size on the
process, three mean diameters of tyre powders were selected: 0.4, 0.9,
and 1.2 mm. Proximate analysis indicated that the tyre powders con-
tained about 65.7% volatiles, 26.8% fixed carbon, 6.6% ash and 0.9%
moisture. Because of the incomplete collection of oil (tar) and solid
residue in the experimental procedure, the results of these experiment
in the form of yields of oil gas, and char are not included in Table 3. The
authors of paper [79] generally focused on gas production only.
The results of the experiments described in [80], concerning the
non-catalytic pyrolysis of scrap tyres, are presented separately for a
classical fluidised bed reactor and a newly developed two-stage pyr-
olyser consisting of an auger reactor and a fluidised bed reactor in series
(two-stage pyrolysis). Because of the scope of this chapter, the analysis
of these results is limited to fluidised bed pyrolysis, for which the dia-
gram in Fig. 14 remains valid. The pyrolysis of scrap tyre rubber with a
particle size of 1–2 mm was investigated in an electrically heated flui-
dised bed reactor made from a 310S tube with a height of H = 0.390 m
and an inner diameter of D = 110 mm. The components of the equip-
ment for the first stage of pyrolysis in the fluidised bed were the same as
in Fig. 14. The experimental methods and procedures described in
[73,78,79] and listed above were also very similar, so they do not re-
quire repetition; the remaining technological parameters, together with
the results obtained by Estiati et al. [80], are given in Table 3.
Fig. 15 shows the diagram of a technical pilot plant for a 30 kg/h
throughput with a typical classical fluidised bed reactor. This equip-
ment, along with three other laboratory scale plants with throughputs
of 60–3000 g/h, were investigated at the University of Hamburg in
order to assess the suitability of plastic waste, scrap tyres and spent oil
residues as sources of feedstock for fluidised bed pyrolysis.
The fluidised bed reactor, the main chamber of which had an in-
terior diameter of 0.45 m, had two tubes in the top cover, one tube at
the bottom of the auxiliary chamber and a feeder at mid-height. The
raw material (chipped tyres, waste rubber or plastic) was introduced
into the reactor by a screw feeder or through a double lock. The flui-
dised bed (temperature between 600 and 900 °C) consisted of quartz
sand entrained and lifted by pyrolysis gas preheated in the auxiliary
part of the fluidised bed to 400 °C [74].
The post-pyrolytic gas left the reactor carrying grains of carbon
black and ash into the cyclone. After separation of the solid powdery
products, the oil volatiles were condensed in two quenching columns.
The oils were then distilled in two packed columns, whose quenching
fluid boiled in the range of 150–170 °C. The remaining combustible
gases were purified from oil droplets in an electrostatic precipitator,
compressed by five parallel diaphragm compressors to 2–3 bar and
stored in three gasometers of 0.5 m3 capacity each.
The process heat was introduced indirectly into the bed through
radiant-heat tubes, in which the pyrolysis gas was incinerated. The
second stream of this gas, preheated in a heat regenerator by exhaust
gases from the heat tubes, served to fluidise the bed. The excess gas was
W.M. Lewandowski, et al. Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 140 (2019) 25–53

Fig. 15. Fluidised bed pyrolysis plant [74].

flared [74].
The paper by Kaminsky et al. [74] presents a flow diagram of a
fluidised bed reactor for the pyrolysis of two types of spent rubber
materials. One type consists of particles of truck tyres of size
0.8–1.6 mm, the other of discarded rubber gloves. This laboratory scale
equipment with a throughput of up to 3 kg/h is very similar to the pilot
plant shown in Fig. 15. In the 154 mm diameter cylindrical reactor, the
fluidised bed medium consisted of 9 kg quartz sand, set in motion by
preheated nitrogen or steam.
The impact of the type of rubber material on the quantity and
composition of pyrolysis products was also assessed using this equip-
ment. For this purpose, a material with a known composition was used:
a cured mixture for tyre tread use, which consisted mainly of styr-
ene–butadiene–rubber (SBR) 50 wt% and carbon black N220 (27 wt%),
aromatic oil (3.5%), an auxiliary rubber mixture of unknown specifi-
cation (10 wt%) and rubber chemicals (9.5 wt%) [75].
The fluidised bed reactor used by Kaminsky et al. in the plant for the
pyrolysis of rubber waste and plastics is illustrated in Fig. 16 [77].
Other parts of the equipment, analogous to those shown in Fig. 14 and
in paper [74], are not shown in Fig. 16, i.e. the cyclone for separating
residual carbon and fine dust from volatile gases, condensers (water
cooler, two packed condensation columns), two distillation columns,
electrostatic precipitator for removing oil droplets from the pyrolytic
gas, and five membrane compressors connected in parallel [77].
The most important element of the pyrolytic technical pilot plant is
the fluidised bed reactor with an inner diameter of 0.45 m and capa-
cities of 10–40 kg/h waste rubber or plastic. These materials are fed
into the reactor through a double flap gate or a screw and undergo
thermal decomposition in an auxiliary fluidised bed of quartz sand at a
temperature of 600–900 °C. One of the heat sources is pyrolysis gas, Fig. 16. Fluidised bed pyrolysis reactor [77].
preheated by hot fuel gas in the heat exchanger to 400 °C, which flui-
dises the sand bed and creates a vortex within it. The second input of of styrene-butadiene rubber waste in a fluidised bed at 740 °C yielded
heat is indirect, through Field-type heat radiation fire tubes, which are 31.9 wt% of oil, 25.1 wt% of gas, 42.8 wt% of residue and 0.2 wt% of
heated by pyrolysis gas with a calorific value of about 50 MJ/m3. The H2S. For scrap tyres at 700 °C the results were as follows: 27.l wt% (oil),
remaining gas is burnt in a torch. 22.4 wt% (gas), 39.0 wt% (char) and 11.5 wt% (steel) [77].
Of the many different feeds and their products presented in [77], The fluidised bed prototype reactor for the pyrolysis of whole tyres,
two examples regarding rubber waste have been selected. The pyrolysis with an inner square section of side A = 0.9 m (Fig. 17) [77], was made

34
W.M. Lewandowski, et al.
Fig. 17. Prototype fluidised bed reactor for whole tyre pyrolysis [77].
of a steel wall with fireproof bricking. The tyres were introduced into a
hot fluidised bed of sand through a lock with pneumatic gates. At a
temperature above 650 °C whole tyres (maximum weight 20 kg) were
completely decomposed thermally within 1.5–4 minutes.
The pyrolysis gas was cleaned of fine dust and soot in a cyclone and
cooled to room temperature in a quencher with a cycle of product oil.
The remaining combustible gases were sufficient to heat the reactor
without the need for an additional supply of energy. The fluidised bed
in the reactor was heated by radiation fire tubes in which the pyrolysis
gas was incinerated. The exhaust gases from the fire tubes were used to
preheat the fluidising gas by means of heat exchange.
The small steel parts remaining in the reactor were discharged from
the fluidised bed through the sieve bottom and nozzles. On completion
of pyrolysis, larger pieces of steel cord were removed from the grate
with a fork at programmable intervals and deposited in the reservoir
[77].
3.2.2. Reactors with spouted and spout-fluid beds
In a bubbling fluidisation bed, the inert gas is fed through openings
or nozzles placed over the entire surface of the circular distributor.
Therefore, the fluidisation bed consists of infinitely many two-phase
flow cellular structures with an internal local circulation of gas and
solid particles that resemble the two-phase (vapour-liquid) bubbles that
occur during boiling.
Spouting and spouted bed (SB) are an innovative method of bub-
bling fluidisation technologies. However, in contrast to those arrange-
ments in which the fluid flow enters the bed through a flat circular sieve
bottom, with numerous openings, in this case the fluid enters through a
single central inlet orifice situated in the conical bottom. The config-
uration of this two-phase flow structure, shown in Fig. 18, has three
separate zones: the first of them, the spout, is the central core in the
middle of the bottom or even the reactor through which the gas flows
into the bed. The second one, surrounding the conically annular region,
is the area of moving and vigorously mixing particles, while the third
zone is formed by the solid particles above the bed surface entrained by
the spout and descending in the form of an annulus fountain.
The effect of spouted bed mixing can be reinforced by placing a
vertical draught tube above the gas supply opening. The two-phase flow
35
Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 140 (2019) 25–53
Fig. 18. Conical spouted bed reactor with draught tube and contactor main
dimensions [82].
(gas-solid) mechanism in the spouting bed formed in the presence of the
draught tube and the influence of its diameter and distance above the
opening in the bottom are the subjects of investigations presented in
papers [81–84]. The experimental setup for investigating the hydro-
dynamic performance for draught tube selection in a pilot scale conical
spouted bed pyrolysis reactor is shown in Fig. 18 [82].
Just as in the bubbling fluidising technique (Fig. 2), depending on
the gas flow rate, the structure of the SB flow, from static (fixed bed),
through intermediate flow patterns, transforms into a fully developed
spouting regime.
After many years of research, the spouting and spouted bed tech-
niques were initiated by the National Research Council (NRC) of
Canada, where this type of fluidisation is known as SB [81]. Conical
spouted bed reactors (CSBR) are also coming into use for the pyrolysis
of scrap tyres [13,14,25,82,85–92], because they enable the handling of
sticky and irregularly shaped materials such as scrap tyres [89]. Ad-
ditionally, the cyclic particle movement in the spouted bed prevents
bed defluidisation by particle agglomeration and local overheating, and
inhibits heat transfer between phases, which is important for the
treatment of a low conductivity material such as rubber.
3.2.3. CSBR integrated with a superheater
A diagram of the typical CSBR, without the draught tube, for the
pyrolysis of waste car tyres (PCT) in the continuous mode is shown in
Fig. 19 and Fig. 20 [25]. A more detailed drawing of the construction of
this reactor is given in paper [94], which deals with the gasification of
polyethylene.
Waste tyre pyrolysis runs have been carried out in the CSBR illu-
strated in Fig. 19, whose design is based on the study of kinetics [45],
hydrodynamics [45,83–85,89] and on the application of this tech-
nology to the pyrolysis of different solid wastes, such as biomass
[13–15,23,95,96] or plastics [39,94,97–99].
The equipment described in [25] for the CSBR pyrolysis of waste
tyres or polyethylene [94] consists of:
W.M. Lewandowski, et al. Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 140 (2019) 25–53

Fig. 19. Conical spouted bed reactor (from Fig.20) with preheater but without
the draught tube [94].
Fig. 20. Bench-scale plant with conical spouted bed reactor for waste tyre
pyrolysis [25], [94,86].
The fast heating rate (103-104 K/s) resulting from the high intensity
of heat and mass transfer during vigorous, cyclic movement of the so-
lids, low residence times of the hot volatiles (from about 30 ms in the
spout zone to 500 ms in the annulus) and the rapid removal of char
from the CSBR minimises undesirable secondary reactions. These fast
pyrolysis conditions were shown to be suitable for attaining high oil
yields (Table 3).
The chemical composition, water content, calorific value and final
analysis of the thermal decomposition of a waste truck tyre (free of steel
and other carcass elements) at pyrolysis temperatures of 425, 475 and
575 °C were determined. The feedstock material was sieved down to a
particle size range between 2.8 and 3.3 mm before being fed into the
reactor.
A CSBR construction, similar to that shown in Fig. 2a but with a
separate electrically heated inert gas preheater, is illustrated in Fig. 21
[90] and [100].
A conical spouted bed reactor (CSBR) for the pyrolysis of scrap tyres
was studied at thermal degradation temperatures of 425, 500, 550 and
610 °C. The reactor had a total height HT + Hc = 340 mm, a conical
bottom of diameter φt = 123 mm, height Hc = 205 mm, and conical
angle = 28°. The diameter of the base was φb = 20 mm and the gas
inlet diameter φb was 10 mm (according to the labelling in Figs. 18 and
19). The raw material (particle size < 1 mm) was standard tyre con-
taining approximately 30% natural rubber, 30% styrene-butadiene
rubber and 30% carbon black. The remaining 10% consisted of sulphur,
zinc oxide and vulcanisation additives. The spouted bed was sand with
a particle size between 0.63 and 1 mm. The inert gas was N2, flowing
with a velocity of 1.2 times the minimum spouting velocity, i.e.
0.39 m3/h, through the preheater, which consisted of a metallic, ther-
mally insulated, tube with a cartridge containing a ceramic resistance in
the centre.
The resistance heated the nitrogen stream to the reaction tem-
perature, which was measured with a thermocouple placed at the inlet
of the reactor. The gaseous products left the reactor by a tube placed
with the cyclone and filter inside the furnace at a temperature of 300 °C,
which prevents the condensation of oil on the tube walls and on the
carbon black particles.
In the experiment described in [100], the outlet tube for the con-
tinuous discharge of carbon black from the reactor was closed for car-
rying out the discontinuous operation required for the kinetic study.
The yield of the liquid fraction decreased from 30.48% at 425 °C to
23.70% at 610 °C. in contrast to gas, whose efficiency increased from
0.70% at 425 °C to 3.18% at 610 °C. The aromatic fraction increased
slightly from about 5% at 425–500 °C but then increased sharply to
16.44% at 610 °C. The tar fraction decreased from 29.90% to 22.55%.
The yield of the char fraction remained almost constant with tem-
perature at around 34% [90]. Table 2 lists the oil fraction yield as the
sum of the liquids, aromatics and tar fractions, which was 65.3 wt% at
435 °C and 62.8 wt% at 610 °C.
In article [101] and Table 3 Arabiourrutia show the yields obtained
for the five pyrolytic decomposition fractions of the same material and
in the same CSBR as in [90], but only at a temperature of 500 °C.

• a conical SB reactor without a draught tube, shown in Fig. 19,

• a system for the continuous feeding of waste truck rubber at rates
3.2.4. CSBR with separate superheater
Diagrams of pyrolysis installations for tyres in conical spouted bed
from 0.03 to 0.48 kg/h,
• a dispenser and flowmeter of inert gas (N ) with a flow rate of
reactors are shown in Fig. 20 (here the preheater is one unit) and in
2
Fig. 22 (where the preheater is separate). Also, the reactors (without the
0.48 m3/h for inducing the fluidisation of 150 g of sand (particle size
preheaters) for the pyrolysis of scrap tyres in both plants [25,94]
between 0.3 - 0.8 mm),
•
(Fig. 21) and [89,91] (Fig. 23) are very similar. The main differences
a high-efficiency cyclone with a sintered steel filter for fine particle
between them are the slightly altered dimensions: φt=123 mm,
retention (> 5μm),
•
φb=20 mm, φ0=10 mm, Ht = 140 mm, Hc = 200 mm, reactor wall
a double-shell tube condenser, cooled by tap water,
•
thickness = 9 mm, and conical bottom angle = 28° (Fig. 23), and the
and a gaseous product analysis system.
presence of a solids outlet of diameter φ =10 mm, allowing continuous
operation by selectively removing the carbon black from the area above
In each 30-minute run, 65 g of crumbled truck tyres are con-
the bed surface. More dimensions and information on this plant, not
tinuously fed (0.078 kg/h) into the reactor.
shown in the above-mentioned publications, are given in [97].

36
W.M. Lewandowski, et al. Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 140 (2019) 25–53

Table 3
Literature data parameters of fluidised bed reactors for the pyrolysis of worn tyres and rubber materials.
References Scale Through put [kg/ Percentage of oil / gas / carbon T °C Type of material particle size Diameter, medium
h]

Bubbling bed reactors under ambient pressure

[75] L 1 65/3.5/31 Steam 500 cured mixture for tyre tread use, D = 0.154 m, quartz sand, steam
65/5.0/30 N2 0.6 H2O 500 1-2 mm, 2.8 kg/h
57/9.2/34 N2 0.5 -//- 550 N2 3.4-3.8 kg/h
51/9.1/40 N2 0.2 -//- 600
[74] T 30 22.0/22.4/39.0 (11.5 steel,5.1H2O) 700 whole scrap tyres D = 0.45 m,
31.9/25.1/42.8 (0.2 H2S) 740 SB rubber, 2-4 mm, tyre parts, 2-4 mm quartz sand
22.4/35.2/40.6 (1.6 steel, 0.1H2O) 750 N2 3.9 m3/h
[76] L 3 45.9/18.3/27.5 (N2) 598 warm milling of truck tyres 0.8 – D = 0.154 m, quartz sand, N2 or
46.8/15.5/29.4 (Pyrogas) 601 1.6 mm steam
45.8/17.5/30.3 (Steam) 599 pieces of gloves
46.0/19.3/28.6 (Steam) 600
46.4/22.1/27.6 (Steam) 650
27.8/30.6/36.7 (Steam) 700
72.2/16.3/1.1 (Steam) 600
[77] P 120 20-30/15-20/30-40 (5-10 water, 5-20 steel 650 whole scrap tyres Square section of A = 0.9 m, sand
T 10-40 cord) 700 scrap tyres
27.1/22.4/39.0 (11.5 steel)
[73] [145], P 200 26.8/19.0/35.8 (13.3steel,5.1H2O) 700 whole scrap tyres A = 0.9 m, sand D = 0.154 m,
quoted L 1 30.2/20.9/48.5 (–, 0.4 H2O) 740 tyre powder, 2-4 mm D = 0.45 m,
in T 30 31.9/28.5/38.0 (1.6 steel, –) 750 tyre pices D = 0.45 m, quartz sand, N2 or steam
[76] T 30 30.6/29.4/38.6 (1.4 steel, –) 780 tyre pices
[78] L 1.05 40.5/ 28.05/ 31.4 350 tyre, 0.71 mm D = 0.05 m, H = 0.3 m,
1.32 40.5(44.5)/ 27.0(29.0)/32.5(26.5) 400 0.48 (1.0) mm sand of particles 0.71-1.0 mm,
0.78 44.0(44.95)/ 22.5 (16.2)/33.5(37.9) 400 0.48 (1.0) mm
1.05 36.1(41.5)/ 18.4(34.0)/45.5(24.5) 475 0.30 (0.71) mm
1.50 40.6/ 34.5/ 24.9 475 0.71 mm
1.05 41.0/32.2/26.8 * 475 0.71 mm
1.32 29.3(32.0)/ 30.2(37.5)/40.5 (30.45) 550 0.48 (1.0) mm
0.78 28.25(35.2)/ 45.5(34.0)/26.25(30.8) 550 0.48 (1.0) mm
1.05 25.3/ 46.0/28.7 600 0.71 mm
1.05 40.8/31.4/31.0 ** 475 0.74 mm
[80] L 0.3 51.2/ 7.5/ 38.3 product gas 497 scrap tyre rubber 1-2 mm D = 0.11 m, H = 0.39 m,
0.3 41.0/19.0/36.5 product gas 614 quartz sand, N2
0.3 49.1/11.2/36.8 Nitrogen 516
0.3 39.0/20.4/37.3 Nitrogen 617
Spouted bed reactor under ambient pressure
[25] L 0.078 58.4 ± 2.1/ 3.7 ± 0.2/37.9 ± 1.5 425 crumbled truck tyres particle size (0.3 D = 0.06 m,
0.078 58.2 ± 2.6/ 5.9 ± 0.6/35.9 ± 1.6 475 – 0.8 mm) H = 0.298 m,
0.078 54.0 ± 1.7/10.1 ± 0.3/35.9 ± 1.1 575 sand, N2
[86] L 0.078 58.43/ 3.64 /37.9 with draft tube 425 crumbled truck tyres particle size D = 0.095 m, H = 0.280 m,
0.078 58.22/ 5.91 /35.9 with draft tube 475 (0.3-0.8 mm) sand, N2
0.078 53.96/ 10.16 /35.9 with draft tube 575
[90] L 2 g for a one runs 65.3/0.7/34.0 425 truck tyres particle size lower than D = 0.129 m, H = 0.340 m,
62.8/16.4/34.0 610 1 mm
[101] L 2 g for a one runs 63.2 (7.8v, 25.6vv) / 3.1 / 33.7 500 truck tyres particle < 1 mm D = 0.129 m,
H = 0.340 m,
[89] L 0. 18 62.83(3.34v,17.22vv)/1.81/35.36 (I) 425 I – lorry tyre < 1 mm D = 0.141 m,
0. 18 60.89(9.45v,9.09vv)//2.18/36.92 500 II-car tyres < 1 mm H = 0.340 m,
0. 18 54,95(13.86v,12.95vv)//6.81/38.30 600 N2, sand
0. 18 64,29(13.06v,9.33vv)/1.81/33.91 (II) 425
0. 18 61.70(16.63v,9.24vv)/4.25/34.05 500
0. 18 55.94(22.96v,11.48vv)/8.26/35.81 600
[91] L 0.18 65.2(13.2v,9.3vv)/1.81/34.5 425 II –car tyres < 1 mm D = 0.141 m,
0.18 62.6(16.9v,9.3vv)/4.5/34.6 500 H = 0.340 m,
0.18 56.94(23.5v,11.3vv)/8.6/36.5 600 N2, sand
[88] L 0.18 64.3(13.1v,9.2vv)/1.9/33.9 425 particle size of r car tyres < 1 mm D = 0.141 m,
0.18 62.0(16.7v,9.3vv)/1.9/33.9 500 H = 0.340 m,
0.18 56.0(22.9v,11.5vv)/1.9/33.9 600 N2, sand
[87] L 0.3 64.4(13.1v, 9.3vv) / 1.9/ 34.0 425 particle size of car tyres < 1 mm D = 0.141 m,
0.3 62.4(16.9v, 9.4vv) / 4.3/ 34.4 500 H = 0.340 m,
Spouted bed reactor under vacuum conditions
[87] L 0.3 62.4(10.8v,19.3vv)/3.9/34.0 50 kPa 425 particle size of car tyres < 1 mm D = 0.141 m,
0.3 62.2(16.5v,18.3vv) /4.1/34.5 50 kPa 500 H = 0.340 m,
0.3 61.2(10.8v, 18.7vv)/4.7/34.0 25 kPa 425 N2, sand
0.3 60.5(12.3v, 21.7vv)/5.9 34.2 25 kPa 500
Circulating fluidised bed
[108] L 5.0 50.5 / 14.5 / 31.6 no data 500 particle size 0.32 mm, particle size D = 0.1 m,
41.3 / 10.0 / 45.4 no data 500 0.8 mm H=3m
50 / 31.5 / 14.5 RT = 1 s 500 No data sand
48.7 / 29.5 / 17.5 RT = 3 s 500 No data
46.3 / 28.2 / 21.5 RT = 5 s 500

37
W.M. Lewandowski, et al.
Fig. 21. CSBR pilot plant with draught tube for the pyrolysis of scrap tyres
[90,92],100], [101].
Fig. 22. Pyrolysis pilot plant with a Conical Spouted Bed Reactor
[87,89,95–97].
The fountain region of the spouted bed is characterised by the
segregation and stratification of lower density carbon black particles
and heavier particles of sand and unreacted tyres.
For continuous operation, this pilot plant has a pneumatic system
for feeding scrap tyres with maximum efficiency up to 0.6 kg/h. The
inert gas (N2) flowing through the preheater is the source of heat.
However, in this equipment, as well as in the ones to be discussed
38
Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 140 (2019) 25–53
Fig. 23. CSBR [89,91].
presently, the preheater is a separate device (Fig. 22) instead of being a
reactor extension (see Figs. 19, 20 and 21 [25,94,90,102,100,98]). The
preheater, reactor and the volatile outlet tube of the reactor were
electrically heated by an external heating mantle.
To prevent condensation of pyrolysis oil, a high-efficiency cyclone
followed by a 25 μm sintered steel filter were also heated to 270 °C by
the forced convection of air flowing from inside the thermal insulation
of the reactor housing. The gases leaving the cyclone and filter circu-
lated through the condensation system: this consisted of a condenser,
i.e. a double-shell tube cooled by tap water, and coalescence filters,
which ensured total collection of liquid hydrocarbons. Continuous
mode pyrolysis runs were carried out by feeding two kinds of scrap
tyres at a rate of 0.18 kg/h: separately from lorries (I) and cars (II).
Initially frozen in liquid nitrogen, both types of tyres were shredded to a
particle size < 1 mm, after which, but before pyrolysis, the steel, car-
cass and textiles were removed. The inert gas flow rate was 1.2 times
that corresponding to the minimum spouting velocity, i.e. 0.57 Nm3/h
at 500 °C. The maximum gas flow rate in this arrangement was 1.8
Nm3/h and varied slightly with temperature. Up to 35 g of sand (par-
ticle size 0.63–1 mm) was sufficient to ensure optimal heat transfer and
a constant, stable temperature in the spouted bed in these experiments.
The results obtained for pyrolysis performed at 425, 500 and 600 °C
and for the two types of scrap tyres I and II are given in the form of oil,
gas and solid yields in Table 3 [93].
3.2.5. CSBT with draught tube
The results of the research described in [82] endorse the use of a
draught tube: this significantly improves spouting regime performance,
since bed stability is increased and fluidising gas requirements are re-
duced.
The same equipment with CSBR as is shown in Fig. 21 [25,94,86]
W.M. Lewandowski, et al. Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 140 (2019) 25–53

and Fig. 20 [94], but with a draught tube and with different dimensions 3.2.7. Catalytic pyrolysis in CSBR
of the conical bottom, was used for the waste truck-tyre pyrolysis de- Catalytic pyrolysis of waste tyres under ambient pressure and va-
scribed in [86]. In this version of CSBR the detailed design and di- cuum is being employed with increasing frequency [29,30,35–37,101].
mensions, instead of those presented in Fig. 19, are as follows: an upper It turns out, however, that CSBR can also be used for this purpose [99]
diameter of ϕt = 95 mm, a cylindrical tube and cone heights of The low segregation of the CSBR is advantageous from the point of
Ht = 280 mm and Hc = 150 mm, respectively, and a conical angle of view of handling solids, whose size decreases throughout the process, as
30°. The base diameter is ϕb = 20 mm, and that of the gas inlet is well as for the joint treatment of solids of different density and gran-
ϕo = 8 mm (the labelling is the same as in Figs. 19 and 20). The draught ulometry, which permits the co-pyrolysis of different materials or with
tube with an internal diameter of 10 mm and length of H0 = 70 mm is catalysts in the bed. In turn, by using catalysts and hydrotreatment, oil
situated LH = 15 mm above the opening of the inert gas inlet for of a much better quality can be obtained from waste tyres, which does
creating the entrainment zone. This distance parameter is particularly not require desulphurisation [38].
important as it controls the solid circulation rate, stability and flow rate The studies on the use of catalysts for the pyrolysis of waste tyres in
in the reactor [82,83,85,89]. spouted bed conditions were carried out in the plant shown in Fig. 22
The study results of waste truck-tyre processing by flash pyrolysis in [38,31] and Fig. 21 [34]. However, the influence of catalysts on pyr-
a conical spouted bed reactor have been placed in Table 3. However, olysis is not explored in the present work, as this issue lies beyond the
comparison of the results obtained without the draught tube [25] scope of this work, which concerns reactors for the thermal decom-
(Fig. 19) with those obtained in a reactor with such a tube [86] position of waste tyres.
(Fig. 18), shows that the use of a draught tube in the spouted bed did
not significantly affect the oil, gas and coal performances. Perhaps such 3.3. Internally circulating fluidised bed
small differences in dimensions and specific gravity of tyre particles
2.8–33 mm in size did not need additional intensification with a Internally Circulating Fluidised Bed reactors (ICFBR) are very si-
draught tube, because the mixing effect of the spouted bed was suffi- milar to the conical spouted bed reactors (CSBR) with a draught tube,
cient. A draught tube may homogenise the reaction mixture more ef- described above. This emerges from the descriptions and drawings
fectively in other conditions (size, homogeneity of material particles, published in various papers; some of them, e.g. [22], relate to waste
inert gas flow rate) of waste tyre pyrolysis in a CSBR. biomass, others to the gasification of plastics [99] or heavy oil [107].
However, because of the much faster residence times of 400–600 ms,
3.2.6. CSBR pyrolysis under vacuum ICFBR are classified as flash or ultra-pyrolysis reactors.
The pyrolytic vacuum decomposition of waste tyres is known and The ICBR pyrolyser shown in Fig. 24, with a diameter ranging from
used [26–28,103–105], but it turns out that CSBR can also be used for 0.15 m at the base to 0.2 m at the top and 2.1 m in height, has a central
this purpose [87,106]. axially aligned draught tube (riser) of overall height 1.1 m and a
The pilot plant arrangements for the vacuum pyrolysis of waste 0.035 m diameter. It is placed within the fluidised bed just above the
tyres published in [87] and [106], except for the vacuum pump placed central feed jet inlet; extending above the bed surface, it consists of a
at the end of the gas line but before the vent, are identical as the re-
actors already discussed and operating under ambient pressure condi-
tions, a diagram of which is shown in Fig. 22. That is why the diagrams
from these papers have not been reproduced here.
The main effect of vacuum (25 and 50 kPa) pyrolysis of waste tyres
in comparison with the atmospheric process is an increase in the diesel
fraction and isoprene (greater than seven wt %) yields. The results show
that the vacuum thermal decomposition of waste tyres in a CSBR offers
good prospects for further development, because the energy require-
ments for heating the inert gas and the amount of heat discharged from
the condensation section in this mode are significantly reduced.
At a temperature range suitable for pyrolysis (400–600 °C), the mass
flow rate of inert gas under ambient pressure is twice and 3.5 times
those corresponding to 50 and 25 kPa, respectively, because the
minimum spouting velocity increases when the operating pressure is
reduced.
The CSBR used in vacuum pyrolysis has to be fully airtight.
Therefore a leak test is carried out before each experimental run to
ensure no air is entering the reaction medium [87]. The plant is
equipped with the CSBR, whose dimensions are given in Fig. 23: pre-
heater, cyclone, filter, condenser, coalescence filters, flowmeters, GC
Agilent 6890 (HP-Pona column), and a vacuum pump. The reactor
operates with a system for the continuous dosing of shredded waste
tyres with an efficiency of 0.3 kg/h. The feeder system consists of a
reservoir connected to a pneumatically actuated ball valve. The ground
tyre fills the hollow in the ball assisted by a vibrator inside the re-
servoir, which subsequently rotates, sending the batch into the reactor
(the feed is forced by a small N2 flow). The main mass flow of inert gas
(N2), causing the fluidisation of 35 g of sand (particle diameter
0.63–2 mm), is 0.57, 0.32 and 0.18 m3/h for the experiments carried
out under ambient pressure (100 kPa), and under vacuums of 50 and
25 kPa, respectively. The results obtained for the above experimental
conditions and temperatures of 425 and 500 °C, presented in tabular
form in paper [87] and in graphs in [89], are listed in Table 3 [87]. Fig. 24. Internally circulating fluidised bed reactor ICFBR [22,99,107].

39
W.M. Lewandowski, et al. Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 140 (2019) 25–53

series of orifices located at the bottom for vertical transport of the so-
lids. The draught tube at the top ends in a disc hopper for the discharge
of solids into the bed. This solution eliminates any concerns about spout
stability and the effect of temperature on the maximum portable bed
height that is common with conventional spouted beds. In this reactor,
mass fluxes of recycled material of the order of 1000 kg/m2 are
achievable [107].
Another example of a reactor with an internally circulating fluidised
bed for the pyrolysis of waste materials is described in [99]. Although
primarily intended for recycling waste plastics, it can also be used for
the thermal decomposition of used tyres into oil. This pilot-plant scale
ICFB reactor, capable of achieving the residence time required for high
yield conversion of waste plastics to olefins, is very similar to the re-
actor shown in Fig. 24. It differs only in dimensions and the method of
returning disengaging solids to the bed. In this case, the upper end of
the draught tube (riser) is bent downwards, creating a centrifugal se-
parator of solids. The cylindrical reactor body is constructed of 18-
gauge Inconel alloy 601 with a diameter of 0.152 m and a length of
1.23 m. The riser is from the same alloy tubing having an internal
diameter of 34.9 mm and a length of 1.07 m. The external cylindrical
furnace has an electrical power of 15.5 kW. About 40 kg of sand, of
mean particle diameter 0.63 mm, is placed inside the reactor. In this
experiment, steam is used as the riser and auxiliary gas. At a superficial
gas velocity in the riser of 7.4–8.4 m/s, the superficial mass flow rate of
sand in the riser is in the range 350–380 kg/(m2s), three orders of
magnitude higher than that of the particle feed having the same mean
diameter (0.63 mm) as the sand. Fig. 25. Experimental circulating fluidised bed apparatus for waste tyre powder
Investigations of pyrolysis in this reactor at temperatures from 780 pyrolysis [108].
to 860 °C with residence times of 400–600 ms gave total volatile yields
of > 90 wt.% and total olefin yields as high as 75 wt.%. The reactor, a standpipe 0.1 m in diameter and 2.9 m in height to-
The demonstrated effectiveness of the ICFB reactor as a means of gether with four 1.5 m long gas-preheating tubes of 60 mm diameter,
recycling low-density polyethylene (LDPE) [99] is likely to be equally was fixed in a combustion chamber made from a 0.5 m × 0.3 m × 1.5
high in the case of waste tyres. m stainless-steel cube box. The pyrolytic char powder, separated in the
cyclone, and the non-compressible pyrolytic gas burned in this com-
3.4. Circulating fluidised bed reactors bustion chamber in the air in a typical fluidised bed, provided the heat
source for the whole system. The carrier gas, compressed by the cir-
The two-phase fluid flow of a circulating fluidised bed (CFB) works culating pump into the CFB reactor, was heated in two stages: first in
on the same principle as the bubbling fluidised bed. In CFB, however, the preheating tube to 400 °C, then in the external electrical preheater
the bed is more expanded, and solids continuously recycle around an to 500 °C; during the experiment, there was a slight negative pressure in
external loop consisting of a cyclone and loop seal (Fig. 2a and b). This the reactor.
special hydrodynamic bed operation regime, known as a fast bed, The pyrolysis of two kinds of waste tyre samples of particle sizes
provides good temperature control and is uniform around the entire 0.32 and 0.8 mm was studied. The circulating fluidising agent was
height of the pyrolyser. In CFB pyrolysis, the temperature is relatively quartz sand. Under these thermodynamic conditions in the circulating
high, the gas residence time is around 0.5–1 s and the particle residence fluidised bed (CFB), the achievable heating rate was ca 103 K/s for a
time is of the order of 1 s. To prevent degradation of product vapours, residence time of 1–5 s.
they must exit the reactor very quickly, be separated from the hot solids In addition to those elements already mentioned, the experimental
and quenched. The feed particles must also be mixed very quickly and apparatus, includes a variable-speed screw feeder that can be placed at
effectively with the heat carrier to achieve high heating rates [22]. two different levels along the CFB (0.9 m and 2 m above the distributor
Typically, CFB reactors are used for the gasification of coal or bio- plate); two set-ups consisting of a cyclone and a standpipe with an L-
mass in heat and power plants. However, research is ongoing to im- valve – one to separate and return the sand and the tyre residue back
plement this technology also for tyre recycling. The results of such in- into the CFB, the other to separate the char and, after weighing, direct it
vestigations, carried out on the setup with a processing capacity of into the combustion chamber; a cooling system; a gas-circulating pump
5 kg/h shown in Fig. 25, are discussed in [108]. and the preheating system.
The main element of the experimental apparatus, the CFB reactor, is The yield of pyrolytic products (oil, gas and char) depends on the
made from a heat-resistant stainless- steel tube with a diameter of 0.1 m size of the samples, their residence time in the reaction environment
and a usable height of 2.9 m. The usable height is the distance from the RT, and the temperature of CFB in the reactor. The influence of the first
gas distributor, a round plate with 88 holes each of 3 mm diameter, to two factors is shown in Table 3, and the temperature effect is as follows.
the gas exit. When the temperature increases from 360 °C to 810 °C, the yield of oil
At this distance, the tyre particles, moving in the fluidised bed at a increases from about 49% at 360 °C to a maximum value of about 53%
speed of approx. 2 m/s, undergo pyrolysis in the presence of sand, at 450 °C, then remaining almost constant at about 48% to 600 °C;
which together with a carrier gas (first air, then pyrolysis gas) provides thereafter it decreases to a minimum amount of 30% at 810 °C. The
thermal energy. The time of about 1.5 s, elapsing between feedstock yield of gas increases almost linearly from about 7% at 360 °C to about
pyrolysis and gas quenching under these conditions, is called the re- 40% at 810 °C, while the yield of char decreases from about 40% at
sidence time (RT).

40
W.M. Lewandowski, et al.
360 °C to 27% at 450 °C; up to 810 °C it remains at the same level of
performance [108].
When compared to the BFB technology, the CFB technology is more
compact, provides more intense ablation and, because of the narrower
residence time distribution, smaller amounts of undesirable by-products
are produced [22].
3.5. Rapid fluidised bed reactors
Rapid thermal pyrolysis (RTP) involves introducing batches of
particles into a tornado of upflowing hot sand in a riser reactor at ve-
locities of a few to several metres per second. After being rapidly heated
to 500 °C at a rate of the order of 1000 K/s, the pyrolysed material is
then cooled within seconds. The residence time in the reactor vessel is
from a few hundredths of a millisecond to a maximum of 5 s, which
gives a liquid yield as high as 83% for wood [22]. When choosing be-
tween CFB and Fast Fluidisations or Jet Spouted Beds, one has to bear in
mind the practical implications, since commercialised pyrolysers with a
residence time of 5 s are much easier to build and operate than pyr-
olysers with a residence time of 0.5 s, and working at a lower tem-
perature reduces energy and capital expenditure. Perhaps this is the
main reason why there is no information on the use of Fast Fluidisation
technology in the recycling of waste car tyres [22] (Table 3).
4. Pyrolysis with mechanical charge transport
Pyrolysers for waste tyre recycling are more concerned with gaseous
and liquid products, and because of the huge number of these tyres, a
continuous process is the most advantageous. The condition for a high
oil yield is a fast heating rate of the charge during the process, which
depends on the gas-solid contacting mode. After having discussed
pyrolysis with pneumatic charge transport (FB, BFB, CFB), it is now
time to focus on apparatus in which the contact between the waste tyres
and heating agent is brought about mechanically and how this contact
affects oil performance.
4.1. Rotary kiln pyrolysers
Rotary kiln pyrolysers have many advantages over other types of
reactors. They include an easily adjusted residence time of solids in the
reactor, good mixing of wastes, good heat transfer during slow rotation
of the inclined kiln which gives uniform pyrolytic products, and the
possibility of continuous operation, even though solid wastes have
various shapes, sizes and calorific values.
The bench-scale rotary kiln pyrolysis, produced by Lenton (PTF 16/
75/610 model) and illustrated in Fig. 26, was used for the catalytic
gasification of tyre samples [109] and the experimental verification of
theoretical studies on the impact of the rotational speed, the size of the
material particles and the filling degree on the speed of movement of
the charge in the kiln reactor [110]. The rotary kiln with the inclination
kept at 3° to the horizontal had respective internal and external dia-
meters of 0.80 and 0.94 m, and a total length and heating zone length of
1.55 and 0.61 m respectively. Its rotational speeds, adjustable by means
of an inverter, were maintained during the experiments at 2 and 4 rpm.
Fig. 26. Kiln reactor [109,110].
41
Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 140 (2019) 25–53
Milled tyre samples of 2 mm particle size were loaded into a 5 l
capacity feeder hopper, fitted with an airtight closure system and a
mechanical stirrer. About 0.25 kg of material was continuously fed into
the opening of the reactor by means of a screw device, whose rotation
was controlled by an inverter. Inside the reactor, the material rolled
down the length of the kiln, as a result of a series of shields (not shown
in the figure), mutually tilted at 30°, that assisted the transport, mixing
and heat transfer from electrically heated side walls. The furnace
heating had three independent zones with a maximum power of 9.2 kW.
The solid residue – mainly char and small amounts of ash in the
typical pyrolysis of biomass, but just ash in municipal waste gasification
– was discharged continuously through the bottom channel at the outlet
of the reactor into a tank. The process gas was passed through the upper
tube to the cleaning system before being directed to the next steps. The
further processing of volatiles and gases related to steam gasification
and catalytic reforming exceeds the scope of this article and will not be
discussed.
Fig. 26 can also be used to illustrate a continuous rotary kiln reactor
as the main element of the pilot-scale plant for the pyrolysis of scrap
tyres, investigated and presented in [111]. The peripheral systems of
pyrolytic installations, such as tar condensers and reservoirs, solid re-
sidue collection tanks, flue gas cleaners, demister filters, gas burners,
and effluent gas sampling systems, have been omitted in Fig. 26.
The kiln diameter was 0.3 m, the overall and effective heated
lengths were 3.0 m and 1.8 m respectively. Three individual controlled
heaters with a total power of 30 kW were used to heat the kiln.
Shredded scrap tyres with particle sizes of 13–15 mm, including the
fabric cords but not the steel, were conveyed from a sealed container to
the reactor by a screw feeder with a feeding rate adjusted from 10 to
30 kg/h. The total batch weight in each run, fed at a rate of 12–15 kg/h
with a constant screw rotation of 5 rpm, was 50 kg.
The solids moved within the kiln as a result of the 2° inclination and
rotation. The optimal solid residence time during pyrolysis in a hot kiln
at temperatures varying from 450 to 650 °C was experimentally esti-
mated by changing the rate of rotation in 0.5 rpm steps until the dif-
ference between the char yields in the last two tests was < 1%. This
rate of rotation was the final one, which determined the final residence
time of the solids in the pyrolyser. At pyrolysis temperatures of 450,
500, 550, 600 and 650 °C, these rates were 0.45, 0.60, 0.75, 0.90 and
0.90 rpm respectively.
The results of pyrolysis, implemented at a slight negative pressure of
-20 to −10 Pa to prevent leakage of pyrolytic gases, expressed as yields
of oil, gas and char, are listed in Table 4.
The oblique reactor shown in Fig. 27 involves pyrolysis and gasifi-
cation of municipal solid waste, including spent tyres, with two inter-
connected cylindrical and conical chambers for the former and the
latter processes, followed by the combustion of the evolving gases in a
steam-raising boiler. The solid material is fed by means of a piston from
the hopper via the drying zone into the first pyrolysis chamber at
600–700 °C, where the required heat is supplied by the counter flowing
fuel gas stemming from downstream char gasification with air at about
800 °C in the conical chamber. The pyrolysis chamber is long enough to
enable a sufficient residence time allowing for the almost complete
volatilisation of the organic matter contained in the tyre, while the
metal cord is retained in the char. Together with the fuel gas discharged
from the above drying section, the pyrolysis gas is combusted at
1100–1200 °C in an auxiliary external boiler for raising steam, not
shown in Fig. 27. The char is due to the drum’s inclination and is
conveyed directly into the gasification chamber. Following ash dis-
charge at the smaller end, metals can be recovered. This equipment,
known by its technological name of P.I.T.Pyroflam and developed by BS
Engineering S.A., an affiliate of SERPAC Environment of France, oper-
ates with an efficiency of 1 t/h at Budapest airport, Hungary, to treat
industrial waste [112]. The pyroflam process can also be used for the
energetic recycling of tyres, but a more profitable technology is to
pyrolyse the tyres in cement plants, where rotary kilns are also used
W.M. Lewandowski, et al. Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 140 (2019) 25–53

Table 4
Literature data parameters of mechanical reactors for the pyrolysis of worn tyres and rubber materials.
References Scale Through put of Percentage of oil / gas / carbon T °C Type of material particle size Diameter, medium
[kg/h]

Rotary reactors
[121] L 40g 19/33/48 950 reinforcing fibre : coal 1:1 D = 0.151 m,
20/32/48 850 L = 0.213 m
20/32/48 Rotation speed:Low
21/31/48 High
23/29/48 Medium
[116] L 40 g 28/31/41 (tyre crumbs) 850 tyre crumbs scrap tyres D = 0.151 m,
34/37/29 (scrap tyres) L = 0.213 m
[115] L 0.0185 51.61 / 10.95 / 33.05 450 particle size 10-15 mm and heating rate of 20 K/min D = 0.03 m,
0.0171 51.78 / 7.92 / 33.66 500 L = 0.8 m,
0.0160 51.83 / 12.11 / 33.50 550 N2
0.015 51.14 / 7.31 / 32.92 600
[117] P 10 tones (40-45) / (8-10) / (30-35) n.i n.i D = 2.8 m, L = 6.6 m
[111] P 12-15 43.0 / 13.1 / 43.9 450 shredded scrap tyre with particle sizes of 13-15 mm D = 0.3 m, L = 3.0 m
45.1 / 13.6 / 41.3 500
44.6 / 15.5 / 39.9 550
42.7 / 18.0 / 39.3 600
42.9 / 18.3 / 38.8 650
[103] 21 53.7 / 7.0 / 30.3 10 kPa 510 truck granules D = 0.6 m, L = 3.0 m
[28] 49.9 / 11.7 / 38.4 12 kPa 431 < 3.8 cm3 -||- car 2.7 cm3 vacuum
56.5 / 10.1 / 33.4 13 kPa 500
57.5 / 11.9 / 30.6 12 kPa 500
Auger/screw reactors
[80] L 4min 51.2/7.5/38.3 497
400g 41/19/36.5 614
49.1/11.2/36.5 516
39/20.4/37.3 617
[130] L n.i. 54-56/6-9/36-38 500 rubber crumb 1-5 mm
[146] 30.21/7.12/62.67 600 tyre powder with a slag ratio 0.2
31.08/8.3/44.49 800
47.21/8.3/44.49 1000
[126] 5 kg/h 42.6 ± 0.1/16.9 ± 0.3/40.5 ± 0.3 550 waste tyres
[127] P 6.7 42.6 / 16.9 / 40.5 550 2 – 4 mm n.i
[129] P 6 43.2 / 18.8 /38.0 1.2 l/min N2 600 2 mm n.i
[128] P 3.5 41.5 / 17.9 / 40.6 11.4 l/min N2 600 5 mm n.i
6.0 46.4 / 13.6 / 30.9 11.4 l/min N2 600
8.0 48.4 / 11.7 / 39.9 11.4 l/min N2 600
average 42.6, 18.5 / 38.9 11.4 l/min N2 600
[131] P 5.5 39.9 / 14.5 / 45.6 500 waste tyres of the size of 1-2 mm without fabric n.i
8.5 43.2 / 9.8 / 47.0 500 fibres
10.0 45.0 / 5.0 / 50.0 500
14.5 42.2 / 4.5 / 53.3 500
Two stage pyrolysis auger reactor (I) and fluidised bed reactor (II) (arranged serially
[80] L 0.3 (400 g/ 1.6/3.0/1.2 (the rest 94.2 wt% tyre) I 229 scrap tyre crumbs of 2 mm in size DI = 0.028 m
80 min) 48.0/6.8/34.9 in the next II stage 500 LI = 0.7 m
3.5/2.7/2.5 (the rest 91.3 wt% tyre) I 334 DII = 0.11 m
44.6/9.4/33.5 in the next II stage 500 HII = 0.39 m
5.0/7.1/3.9 (the rest 84.0 wt% tyre) I 454
42.1/4.8/34.1 in the next II stage 500
Ablative reactors
[132] 10-25 49.6/16.9/33.5 550 tyres
[111] n.i 52.9/ 8.0 / 39.1 350 n.i n.i
[133] P 50 kg/h 49.8 /15.4/34.8 RT 960 s 570 scrap tyre 3.4 mm
54.2 /11.534.4 RT 1290s 495 1.3 mm
Reactors with a mixer
[134] L 150 g 55.50 / 4.50 / 40.00 without catalyst 500 ground scrap tyres V = 1 l, 0.4 l/min N2
[135] L 100 g 1 h 19.3 (27.8) / 22.8 (24.4) / 58.1(47.8) 400 ground scrap tyres 2.0 mm without activated carbon particle D = 0.1 m
28.0 (36.0) / 24.5 (17.0) / 47.5(47.5) 450 size of 3 mm (with carbon) H = 0.15 m
26.5 (55.5) / 33.0 (3.7) / 40.5(41.8) 500
28.2 (32,5) / 28.0 (16.0) / 43.8(51.5) 550
29.0 (40,0) / 21.0 (16.0) / 50.0(44.0) 600

[113].
A study of waste tyre pyrolysis in a rotary kiln reactor with se-
paration of products into five fractions – wax, heavy oil, light oil, non-
condensable gas and carbon black – is presented in [114]. Un-
fortunately, the construction and operation of the reactor is not clear
from the diagram. The cylindrical or spherical rotary pyrolysis kiln
(Kudret Inkar Waste Tyre Recycle Co.), with an internal diameter of
2.2 m and a length of 6.6 m, has a capacity of roughly 4 tonnes. The
rotation speed can be varied between 0.5 rpm and 3 rpm. The energy for
running the system comes from coal burned in a furnace unit under the
reactor. However, after some time, a non-condensable gas is burned
instead of coal. The optimum pyrolysis temperature is 400 °C with a
10 K/ min heating rate. The waste tyre scraps are heated, melted and
pyrolysed, then condensed in a system of three heat exchangers (high

42
W.M. Lewandowski, et al.
Fig. 27. Kiln pyrolysis and gasification reactor [112].
Fig. 28. Experimental rotary kiln reactor for waste tyre pyrolysis [115].
(250–400 °C), medium (100–250 °C) and low (75–200 °C)) in order to
separate the sample into three types of liquid. The cooling system
consists of three water-cooled condensers with a diameter of 0.5 m and
a length of 3 m [114].
An experimental quartz rotary kiln set-up for pyrolysis investiga-
tions of shredded and steel-free waste tyres of particle sizes 5–10 mm
(A), 10–15 mm (B) and 15–20 mm (C) is illustrated in Fig. 28. The
samples of mixed car and truck tyres of any size were supplied by, a tyre
recycling company in Cork, Ireland, which has an output of 2500 t/year
[115].
A quartz tube with a diameter of 0.03 m and length 0.8 m is elec-
trically heated at two heating rates (20 K/min and 60 K/min), in a ni-
trogen atmosphere (100 ml/min) at atmospheric pressure, to tempera-
tures ranging from 450 °C to 600 °C with an interval of 50 °C.
For each experiment, a 10 g sample is placed in the middle of the
quartz tube. During thermal cracking reactions, the tyre particles de-
compose into gaseous, liquid and solid products. The gases are collected
in an airtight bag and analysed offline in a gas chromatograph. To trap
the condensable fraction of the pyrolysis gas, glass beads of nominal
diameter 0.005 m and a fibrous adsorptive material are placed at the
™
Fig. 29. Flowsheet of the Pyrocycling
43
Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 140 (2019) 25–53
end of the reactor’s heating zone. The results show that temperature
(450, 500, 550 and 600 °C), heating rates (60 and 20 K/min) and par-
ticle sizes (A, B and C) influence the yields of oil, gas and char. Table 3
shows the results for the largest oil yields only [115].
The results of a comparative study of the pyrolytic decomposition of
blends of coal and tyre waste in a motionless (fixed bed) and rotating
tube (rotary oven) are the subject of paper [116,121]. The first use of
this set-up at the laboratory scale can be illustrated by Fig. 5, its later
use by Fig. 28. The main part of this apparatus consisted of a quartz
tube electrically heated to 850 °C at 5 K/min in a horizontal oven. In the
stationary fixed bed experiment (FB), a tube of diameter D = 0.02 m
and length L = 0.242 m was used, whereas in the rotary oven (RO),
these dimensions were D = 0.15 m and L = 0.213 m. Around 6–8 g (FB)
or 40 g (RO) samples of tyre crumbs (TC) smaller than 3 mm, mixed in
1:1 proportions with crushed coal of particle size < 1.18 mm and or
reinforcing fibres in tyres (RF), were pyrolysed in a nitrogen atmo-
sphere in each experiment.
Here, only the results relating to (TC) are given; the cases of (TC-
coal), (RF), (RF-coal) and (coal), also discussed in [116,121], are
omitted. The yields of the three products obtained are listed in Table 2
for (FB) and Table 4 for (RO).
A 10 ton capacity plant with a cylindrical rotary reactor for the
pyrolysis of shredded waste tyres and the results of its investigations are
presented in [117] and [118]. The length of the reactor is approxi-
mately L = 6.6 m and the diameter is D = 2.8 m. The reactor is rotated
by means of an electric motor and pulley arrangement, like the quartz
tube in Fig. 28. At the start of the process, the reactor is heated up using
waste wood (2 tons per batch); thereafter, the heat source is the pyr-
olytic gas. One side of the reactor is closed by a door with fasteners. The
door can be opened or closed by locking or unlocking the fasteners. At
the other end of the reactor, there are sealing elements and a flexible
connection with an oil separator to which, after about 4 h of the plant’s
operation, volatile vapours at a temperature around 160 °C pass from
the reactor. The yields of the main products obtained in the pilot plant
are fuel oil (40–45%), non-condensable gases (8–10%) and carbon
black (30–35%), in addition to steel wire (3–5%) and moisture (3–5%).
4.2. Rotating cone pyrolyser
In this reactor, invented at the University of Twente and developed
by BTG, the mixture of feed particles and sand is transported by cen-
trifugal forces rather than gas or gravity. A 250-kg/h unit is now op-
erational, and a scaled-up version of 50 t/d was commissioned in
Malaysia in mid-2005 [16]. It has yet to be reported whether that plant
process of tyre pyrolysis [27,28,122].
W.M. Lewandowski, et al.
has been used to dispose of tyres, but since it has the potential to do so,
its description is included here. More information on this subject can be
found in [16,119,120].
4.3. Rake conveyor pyrolyser
The semi-continuous vacuum pyrolysis of shredded tyres, known as
Pyrocycling™, has been developed by Pyrovac (Sainte-Foy, P. Quebec,
Canada). This process, the equipment and technological procedures are
described in [103,28]. A diagram of a Procycling™ pilot plant is illu-
strated in Fig. 29.
The main element of the large-scale experimental vacuum pyrolysis
unit is the semi-continuous 3-m long reactor with a diameter of 0.6 m.
Two horizontal plates, each 0.35 m wide, are placed inside the tube of
this reactor, one on top of the other. Both are heated by eutectic molten
salts circulating countercurrently with the feedstock through tubes.
Truck tyre shreds with a granule volume < 3.8 cm3 or car tyres of
cylindrical shape 2.7 cm3, fed at flow rates between 21 and 42 kg/h, are
conveyed over both heating plates while being agitated using a novel
patented device [122]. At t = 438–534 °C and absolute pressure p <
12 kPa, pyrolysis decomposes tyres into gas, gaseous light and heavy
hydrocarbon vapours and a solid fraction, mainly carbonate, containing
steel cords and a small amount of ash.
The vapours and gases are sucked in from the reactor and flow
through two packed towers indirectly cooled with tap water. Heavy oil,
condensed in the first column, and light oil in the second one are col-
lected separately in tanks. The ring liquid vacuum pump removes the
flammable gas from the equipment and compresses it in a storage tank.
4.4. Auger or screw pyrolysers
Among the available pyrolysis units discussed above, auger or screw
pyrolysis is also a promising, multifaceted technology for tyre material
recycling to recover oil or char. These reactors are simple to operate
and can be mobile; they require little or no carrier gas and low energy.
Their operating parameters can be easily controlled in order to obtain
the desired products [73,124].
The continuous mode pilot-scale screw reactor, processing up to
15 kg/h of waste tyres, shown in Fig. 30 is described in [125]. The
pyrolytic installation consists of four main parts: a feeding system with
a total capacity of 10 kg and with two hoppers coupled by a butterfly
valve, a screw reactor surrounded by an electric heater, a gravity solid
collecting system with a tank for solid residues, and a condensing
system, consisting of a shell-and-tube countercurrent flow condenser
with a liquid collector at the bottom.
A constant mass flow of 6 kg/h of tyre rubber shreds (particle size
2 mm) is fed to the reactor for 4 h. The temperature inside the pyrolyser
is maintained at 600 °C. The time of solid residence in the reactor is
3.7 min with a carrier gas flow (nitrogen) of 1.2 l/min. In these con-
ditions the tyre shreds moving through the reactor decompose into a
gaseous product and a char, which leave the reactor by gravity falling
into a solid collecting system, while the volatiles and gas reach the
condenser by natural convection assisted by the carrier gas. The liquid
Fig. 30. Screw reactor plant [125].
44
Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 140 (2019) 25–53
fraction goes down the tubes by gravity and is recovered in a collector.
The remaining non-condensed pyrolysis gas passes to a burner before it
reaches the atmosphere. The solid, liquid and gas collecting systems are
not shown in Fig. 30.
The mass flow rate of pyrolysis in the auger reactor was 6.7 kg/h; in
the experimental part more than 500 kg of granulated waste tyres were
used during 100 h in the inert gas flow. The residence time of the raw
material in the reactor was about 3 min, and the process was carried out
to maximise the liquid yield [126,127]. The solid and liquid fractions
were measured by weight and the gas fraction was calculated by sub-
traction.
One more experiment carried out in the same pyrolyser (Fig. 30)
was published in [127] and [126]. A continuous pilot scale auger re-
actor with a processing capacity of 15 kg/h of waste tyres and nominal
capacity of 150 kWth was used in [127] to investigate the possibilities of
producing post-pyrolytic oil from tyres. Martinez et al. [126] focus on
the production of pyrolytic carbon black.
The pyrolysis of a non-specific mixture of granulated waste tyres
(particle size between 2 and 4 mm) without either the steel thread or
the textile netting, the temperature adjusted at 550 °C, under atmo-
spheric pressure with nitrogen gas flow at 5 lN/min rate and a total mass
flow rate of 6.7 ± 0.1 kg/h; the residence time (RT) was fixed at 3 min
by adjusting the rotation speed of the screw inside the reactor. Yields of
solid and liquid products in a steady state, obtained ca 30 min after the
beginning of the experiment, were directly obtained by weight, while
the gas yield was calculated by the difference. Thirteen runs were
performed using up to 560 kg of waste tyres. The average yields after ca
100 h of continuous operation without any technical problems were
42.6 ± 0.1 wt% of liquid, 16.9 ± 0.3 wt% of gas and 40.5 ± 0.3 wt%
of solid fractions [127]. Pyrolysis product yields in the screw reactor
were 43.2% of oil and 38% of solids; the remaining ca 18% must have
been gas. In the same auger reactor a pyrolysis experiment was also
carried out with shredded tyre rubber but with a particle size of 5 mm, a
constant N2 flow rate of 11.4 l/h, at temperatures of 600, 700 and
800 °C [128] and different solid residence times of 1.5, 1.9, 2.5, 3.7 and
5.3 min. The average product yields for these five times at a constant
temperature of 600°C were 42.6% (oil), 18.5% (gas) and 38.9% (solids)
(Table 3) [128,129].
In [130] a screw pyrolyser was used for the thermal decomposition
of rubber crumbs with a woven chord of dimensions 5 × 5 x 2 mm,
performed at 450–550 °C under atmospheric pressure with a 10–15 min
residence time in the reactor. Fig. 31 shows part of the experimental
setup with the screw reactor but without the condenser, the vessel for
capturing oil droplets, a flow-metering valve for neutral gas (N2) or for
the circulating gas (compressed non-condensable gas), or the com-
pressor. The authors do not give the dimensions of the reactor or the
operating parameters; the focus is more on the results of the research:
the following product yields were obtained: (35–50 wt.%) of liquids,
Fig. 31. Facility with screw reactor [130].
W.M. Lewandowski, et al. Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 140 (2019) 25–53

Fig. 32. Two-stage pyrolysis with an auger and fluidised bed reactor [80].

(6–8 wt.%) gas, 6–10 wt.% of metal, and 30–58 wt.% of solid carboni-
ferous residue [130].
A newly developed two-stage pyrolyser consisting of an auger re-
actor and a fluidised bed reactor in series (two-stage pyrolysis) is the
subject of paper [80]. One-stage scrap tyre pyrolysis was carried out at
ca 500 and 600 °C with different fluidising gases (N2 and product gas).
Two-stage pyrolysis was conducted using the product gas as the flui-
dising medium at different auger reactor temperatures (230–450 °C)
and a constant fluidised bed reactor temperature (ca 510 °C). This in-
vestigation aimed to determine the effect of the type of pyrolysis on the
sulphur content in oil in order to reduce it (Fig. 32).
The electrically heated auger reactor with an inner diameter of
0.028 m and a length of 0.7 m was made from a 310S tube. Because
fluidised bed reactors were discussed in the previous section, in this one
the issues regarding the second stage of pyrolysis are limited to char-
acterising the fluidised bed (3.2 kg quartz sand) reactor that was also
made of a 310S tube but with a height of 0.39 m and an inner diameter
of 0.11 m. The pyrolysis gas arising in it passes a char separation system
consisting of a cyclone and a ceramic filter, which are designed to
capture char particles larger than 10 and 2 μm, respectively. Two steel
condensers, one water-cooled at 20 °C and the other ethanol-cooled at
ca 20 °C, are used for quenching the pyrolysis gas, thereby condensing
pyrolysis oil. To prevent the mixing of pyrolysis gases from both re-
actors, the two-stage pyrolysis system is equipped with a gas inlet at the
junction between the auger reactor and the fluidised bed reactor. In
addition, two streams of N2 are injected into the auger reactor to fa-
cilitate smooth feeding and to push out the pyrolysis vapour through a
gas outlet located immediately in front of the heater. One stream is
supplied through the silo with feeding material, the other at the outlet
of the auger reactor at the point where it is connected to the fluidised
reactor.
Choi et al. [80] reports the results separately for the one-stage
pyrolysis in a fluidised bed reactor, and for a two-stage mode (auger
reactor and fluidised bed reactor) arranged in series. The first results
are listed in Table 3, the second ones in Table 4.
The pilot scale experimental apparatus consists of a screw reactor, a
gravitational carbon black separator and a water-cooled condenser of
vapours with a tank for oil; the results of waste tyre (size 1–2 mm
without fabric fibres) pyrolysis are described in [131]. The patented
pyrolyser (US patent No. 20100008836) used in these studies is a
thermo-mechanical cracking reactor designed as a twin-screw extruder
with two sections. In the first one at a temperature of ca 320–350 °C, the
material dosed by the feeding hopper (see Fig. 30) is reduced, mixed
and mechanically pressed. In the second section, a temperature of ca
500 °C is employed to complete the pyrolysis of the tyre pieces con-
tinuously moving inside the reactor. The holding time is controlled by
the revolution speed of the electric motor connected to the extruder.
Fig. 33. Ablative pyrolytic reactor.
Both sections are independently heated by external electric heaters.
The pyrolysis products at a temperature of ca 390–400 °C are in-
troduced through the outlet duct from the reactor into a vertical cy-
lindrical separator connected with it. In the separator, also heated by an
external electrical heater at a temperature maintained at ca 340–350 °C,
the pyrolysis oil vapours, gases and the solid (carbon black) are sepa-
rated from each other by convection and gravity.
The vapour and gases, at a temperature of ca 280 °C, enter a con-
denser, which cools the vapours down to 130–135 °C. The oil is mea-
sured and collected in a tank. The non-condensed gases are collected in
cylinders for analysis and then burnt.
The pyrolysis experiments were carried out using the same tem-
perature profile along the cracking chamber with different crushed tyre
flow rates, from 5.5 to 14.5 kg/h. Each run lasted 7–8 h. Solid and li-
quid pyrolysis yields were determined by weighing the amounts of each
fraction at the end of each experiment and calculating the corre-
sponding weight percentage, while the gas yield was determined by
difference. The product yields (wt%) and the specific energy con-
sumptions required to convert the waste tyres into the products for the
different crushed tyre flow rates are given in Table 4. The results pre-
sented are the mean values of at least four pyrolysis runs carried out at
the same flow rate.
4.5. Ablative pyrolysers
Ablative pyrolysis is a new and original method of fast or flash
pyrolysis whereby heat is transferred by direct contact between the
rotating, heated disc (Fig. 33) or cone and the particles of material.
These particles, which may be larger than in other pyrolytic techniques,
become squeezed between the hot rotating element and the cold sta-
tionary one.
The limitation of this method is not the conductivity of the rotating
element but the usually low thermal conductivity of the raw material.
It can therefore, be used for the production of liquids in high yields
with the potential of higher specific throughputs and reduced equip-
ment size and costs and improved controllability of the pyrolytic pro-
cess [132].
Ablative pyrolysis can be defined as the melting or thermal "abra-
sion" of the organic substratum in the complete absence of an oxidising
agent. The same or a very similar effect occurs in circulating fluidised
beds, where mixing and direct contact of the reacting raw material and
the solid heat carrier take place, although this is not the major effect
[17].

45
W.M. Lewandowski, et al.
Much of the pioneering work on ablative pyrolysis reactors has been
carried out by NREL I Boulder, Colorado (USA) in their ablative vortex
fast pyrolysis reactor, which has a processing capacity of 20 kg/h, by
CNRS at Nancy (France) where extensive basic research has been car-
ried out into the relationships between pressure, motion and tempera-
ture of ablative pyrolysis, and by Aston University, where a prototype
ablative rotating blade reactor of 10 kg/h capacity and liquid yields of
70–75% wt was constructed and studied. In this reactor, the pressure
and motion were derived mechanically by an oblique plane of the disc's
rotation in relation to the base, obviating the need for a carrier gas
[132,17,16]. In the NREL vortex ablative reactor heated to 700 °C, a
stream of steam or nitrogen flowing through an ejector sucks the par-
ticles of the feed and recycled solids and then they are injected tan-
gentially into the cylindrical reactor (cyclone reactor), where they are
accelerated to supersonic velocities in order to obtain high tangential
pressures. The high pressure of the particles on the hot reactor wall
achieved by centrifugal force leads to ablative pyrolytic decomposition.
Unreacted particles of feed are recycled and the vapours and char fines
leave the reactor. Char is separated in the cyclone and the oil in the
condenser. Liquid yields of 60–65% wt. on the dry-feed basis are ty-
pically obtained [16]. More information about the fast ablative pyr-
olysis of biomass in a cyclonic reactor can be found in [18].
The results of ablative pyrolysis of rubber from tyres in a
Continuous Ablation Reactor (CAR), which has a capacity of 5–20 kg/h
are reported in [133]. Feedstock in the particle size range of 1.3 and
3.4 mm was manually loaded into the hopper. This was sealed after
being closed to prevent leakage of gases from the system. The material
was transported into the ablative reactor by a discharge screw at
variable speed. The reactor system was externally heated in six in-
dependently controlled zones of rotating vertical discs to produce
continuous sliding contact between the metal surfaces heated up to
550 °C and the particles of feedstock between them.
After separation of the solid phase in the cyclone, the vapours of oil
and gases from the reactor were condensed in a three-stage fractiona-
tion unit which utilises two liquid quench columns, followed by a
conventional water-cooled heat exchanger. The remaining non-con-
densable gases were directed to the filter to remove oil droplets and
after measuring were analysed. The yields of ablative pyrolysis products
(liquids 49.6% wt., gases 16.9% w.t and carbon black 33.5% wt.) are
given in Table 3.
Since the author of this paper [133] did not give details of the ab-
lative reactor in the text and in the figure, a hypothetical diagram of
one of the three pairs of rotating discs is illustrated in Fig. 34.
4.6. Stirred pyrolysers
In batch-type stirred pyrolysers, a mechanical agitator vigorously
mixes the charge, thereby intensifying the rate of heat transfer and
minimising temperature differences inside the reactor. A batch reactor
used for the catalytic pyrolytic production of a liquid similar to stan-
dard petroleum fuels from waste tyres is described in [134] and illu-
strated in Fig. 35. The cylindrical stainless steel reactor with an external
electrical heater (heating rate 15 K/min) has a capacity of 0.001 m3.
Fig. 34. Continuous ablative pyrolytic reactor.
46
Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 140 (2019) 25–53
Fig. 35. Stirrer reactor for scrap tyre pyrolysis [134].
150 g of scrap tyres, ground to 20–100 mesh and without a steel cord,
and 1.5 g of catalyst (ZSM-5, USY, β, SAPO-11, and ZSM-22) were used
together with 400 ml/min of N2 in each experimental run. The vapours
were condensed by ice-water mixtures in the first condenser and by
water alone in the second one, in which the heavy and light oil fractions
were liquefied. The non-condensable gases were collected in sample
bags for GC analysis. The oil and char left in the reactor were weighed
by subtracting the weight of the catalyst. This investigation of the in-
fluence of temperature on the yield of scrap tyre products without
catalysts indicates that with temperature increases from 430 to 500 °C,
the yield of oil increases significantly from 43.33 wt% at 430 °C to
53.5 wt% at 470 °C and 55.5 wt% at 500 °C, while the yields of gas and
char decreased from 8.00–4.50 wt% for the gas and from 48.57 to
40.0 wt% for the char at 430 and 500 °C respectively. The best results
were achieved at 500 °C with respective yields of oil, gas, and char of
55.5, 4.50 and 40.0 wt% (Table 3) [134].
The pyrolysis of a mixture of rubber tyres and activated char as an
appropriate microwave-absorbing material in a controlled heated
stirred bed system were reported in paper [135]. This microwave-as-
sisted pyrolysis set-up is very similar to the one shown in Fig. 35.
However, instead of the electric steel reactor being heated, the quartz
reactor (D = 0.1 m, H = 0.15 m) in this case is placed in a conventional
microwave with a maximum power of 0.8 kW. Two series of experi-
ments were carried out for 1 h with a heating rate of 19 K/min at
heating temperatures from 400 to 600 °C – one with activated carbon
and the other without it. For each series of experiments, about 100 g of
waste tyre feedstock (ground to crumbs of 2.0 mm size) were mixed or
not and blended with 3.0 mm grain size activated carbon in a 1:1 ratio.
Good heat exchange without local overheating was ensured by a
double-bladed steel stirrer with a shaft length of 0.20 m connected to a
90 W electric motor with an adjustable angular speed. The volatile
products removed from the reaction environment by a stream of ni-
trogen (flow rate 0.5 l/min) were condensed, collected and weighed.
The solid products (mainly char) remained in the reactor and were
weighed after the experiment and cooling.
For the run without activated carbon, the yield of liquid products
ranged from 19.03 wt% at 400 °C to 28.63 wt% at 500 °C, while in the
experiment run with the activated carbon catalyst, the liquid yield was
higher, reaching 27.46 wt% at 400 °C and 54.39 wt% at 500 °C. The
yields of the remaining pyrolysis products are listed in Table 4 [135].
5. Pyrolysers with gravitational batch transport
5.1. Pyrolysers for the decomposition of scrap tyre granulate with
gravitational batch transport
A single fixed bed reactor can be used for periodic pyrolysis. If there
are several of them in one technological line, and their operation is
W.M. Lewandowski, et al. Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 140 (2019) 25–53

Fig. 37. Moving bed reactor for the pyrolysis of whole tyres [138].

Fig. 36. PDU vacuum pyrolysis with gravitational batch transport [104,136].
pyrolysis oil.
On average, this process yielded 55 wt% oil, 25 wt% carbon black,
staggered in time, then the process is pseudo-continuous. It is hard to 9 wt% steel, 5 wt% fibre residues, and 6 wt% gas (Table 5).
imagine a continuous process based on a fixed bed reactor. In con-
tinuous pyrolysis processes, the raw material (waste tyres) has to be
5.2. Pyrolysers for whole tyre decomposition with gravitational batch
supplied continuously and the pyrolytic products (char, oil, and gases)
transport
have to be discharged in the same way. Also the substrates and products
should be moving continuously in the pyrolyser. One of the simplest
Continuous gravitational transport is the approach used in the
and cheapest ways to achieve this is to use the force of gravity.
pyrolyser described in [138]. The plant for whole tyre pyrolysis, shown
Gravitational force is used in a continuous vacuum pyrolyser to
in Fig. 37, comprises a vertical cylindrical reactor with a combustion
dispense and move shredded cross-ply tyres (6–12 mm Tyler sieves)
system for heating in the form of a cylindrical chamber embracing the
from the feeder into the pyrolyser through a double sluice and inside
reactor. Inside this, in the lower part, there are burners surrounding the
the reactor. The feeding rate was 3.5 kg/h. The solid fraction was also
reactor symmetrically. Radially arranged horizontal channels for dis-
drained from the bottom by a double sluice. This vacuum pyrolysis
charging gaseous pyrolysis products to the concurrent condensation
technology was studied over a wide range of temperatures by Pakdel,
separation equipment (not shown in the Figure) are situated tangen-
Roy and colleagues [104,136]. They used the PDU (Pyrolysis Develop-
tially around the upper part of the cylindrical reactor. The whole tyre
ment Unit) as described in Aubin's doctoral dissertation [137] (Fig. 36).
feeding conveyor system, comprising a supply roller and two chambers,
The main component of this pilot plant, shown in Fig. 36, is a semi-
is located horizontally, at the upper level of the cylindrical reactor. The
continuous vertical cylindrical pyrolyser with a diameter of D = 0.7
first one is a horizontally oriented, open receiving chamber that is a
and height H = 2 m with six heating zones that stabilise the horizontal
continuation of the supply roller conveyor. The second is a chamber
layers of granules at specific temperatures: t = 226 (highest layer), 295,
forehearth hermetically sealed by means of a vertical valve dividing
366, 404, 450 and 510 °C. The maximum reactor temperature and total
both chambers. The version of the dispensing system shown in the
pressure were 510 °C (at the bottom of the pyrolyser) and 1 kPa, re-
figure is very simplistic. Among other things, the following have been
spectively.
omitted: the lid of the cylindrical reactor with its upper part, the ver-
The organic vapours (hydrocarbon gases and liquids) were sucked
tical pneumatic cylinders for opening, two pairs of horizontal pneu-
out and removed from the reactor chamber by a mechanical vacuum
matic cylinders for gastight sealing, and the horizontal ducts with inlets
pump and condensed in a series of condensers. A battery of six con-
for vacuum treatment and the provision of inert gas after the next tyre
densers (H-I, H-II….H-VI) was installed in parallel at the reactor outlets
has been fed into the forehearth.
corresponding to the six reactor hearths. The remaining non-condensed
This installation also has a transport system consisting of at least
vapours and gases were collected in a train of receivers in the second
one pair of water-cooled rollers with three band conveyors placed be-
stage of condensation C-I, C-II … C-IV. A mixture of the pyrolysis liquid
neath for removing the steel cord and carbon black. The pair of water-
fractions from the first and the second condensing units was distilled
cooled rollers is tightly sealed in a casing attached to and under the
under atmospheric pressure up to 204 °C to separate the naphtha frac-
cylindrical reactor. The lower part of the casing is placed in a water
tion from limonene. This fraction yield represented 26.8% of the total
pool. In this way, a water back-pressure gate of the reaction space of the

Table 5
Literature data parameters of pyrolysis with gravitational movement of worn tyres or rubber materials.
References Scale Throughput of [kg/h] Percentage of oil / gas / carbon T °C Type of material particle size Diameter, medium

Rotary kiln
[104] P 3.5 kg/h 55.0/6.0/25.0 (9% steel,5%FR) 1kPa 510 shredded cross-ply tyres (6 – 12 mm) D = 0.7 m,
H=2m
[136] 12 kg/h 61.0/13.0/26.0 (3.6 % ash) 10.3kPa 500 shredded cross-ply tyres D = 0.7 m,
H=2m

47
W.M. Lewandowski, et al.
Fig. 38. Moving microwave bed reactor for the pyrolysis of whole tyres [139].
cylindrical reactor is formed.
The apparatus for the microwave pyrolytic decomposition of whole
waste tyres consists of a housing constructed from a number of verti-
cally arranged chambers: these include a preheating chamber, an irra-
diation chamber placed below the preheating chamber, and a cooling
chamber located below the microwave heater for receiving destructive
distillation products (oil, gases, carbon black and steel).
All the chambers have inlet and outlet gates comprising two pairs of
doors for the gravity feeding of tyres from the purge-preheating
chamber to the irradiation chamber and the products from the irra-
diation chamber to the cooling one. The doors are hermetically sealed
providing a purge lock between the chambers. The preheating chamber
also has two stubs, including an outlet for supplying the purge gas (N2,
CO2 or other neutral gases) at a pressure above atmospheric pressure to
the preheating chamber. This gas removes air and oxygen from the
purge-preheating chamber, and if it flows through a tubular heat ex-
changer in the irradiation chamber, it additionally heats the tyres
[138].
Ceramic rods are used to support the tyres in a generally vertical
orientation in the preheating and irradiation chambers. The irradiation
chamber also includes eight microwave transparent windows through
which microwave energy is transmitted. An ultrasonic vibratory
cleaning device, not shown in Fig. 38, is used for cleaning and removing
contaminants from them [139].
The microwave energy is transferred through the eight microwave-
transparent windows, four on each side of the vertically positioned tyre,
into the pyrolytic chamber with the use of waveguides and microwave
stirrers located at the output ends of the waveguides. Fig. 38 does not
show the waveguide isolators with dummy loads used to redirect re-
flected microwave power into a dummy load, thereby protecting the
microwave source, magnetron, waveguide launchers, stirrer blades and
the other elements of the microwave heating system.
A screen, constituting the “bottom” of the pyrolytic chamber and
simultaneously the microwave insulator, lets the oil through, but re-
tains particles of carbon black and the steel cord. After pyrolysis is
complete and on opening the sieve and the bottom gate with two doors,
solid pyrolysis products descend by gravity into the cooling chamber.
After cooling off they are discharged by the conveyor to the outside
through the side gate, also with two doors.
Volatile and combustible gases are discharged to a condenser, not
48
Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 140 (2019) 25–53
shown in the figure, through a tube mounted above and oil through a
tube mounted below the oil filter in the side wall of the pyrolysis mi-
crowave heating chamber.
The concept of the technology shown in Fig. 39 implies that pyr-
olysis of whole tyres, selection of the oil fractions obtained, biocarbon
activation and hydrocarbon gas can be implemented continuously in a
single plant [24].
The process begins with tyres being placed one after another into a
narrow water pool, from which they are transported through a hy-
draulic airlock, into the pyrolyser. After the tyres have been rotated
from the horizontal to the vertical position, as shown in the diagram,
the remaining air in them is removed, the tyres are filled with hot
water, which additionally washes them and rinses the sand out of them.
Then the conveyor (not shown in the figure) raises the lowest tyre in the
pool, which pushes the remaining ones into the pyrolyser.
The next operation is drying the tyres with the pyrolysis gas by
flushing and preheating them. Proper pyrolysis takes place in a tubular
pyrolyser of a rectangular cross-section, which is heated by a dia-
phragm with flue gas. The hot side, bottom and top walls of the pyr-
olyser adhere to the tyres rolling in it and heat them to a temperature of
500–550 °C. The cross-sectional dimensions of the pyrolyser are re-
duced as the tyres shrink.
The large heat exchange surface and the direct contact of the tyres
with the walls make the pyrolysis process very quick. These conditions
enable the maximum amount of oil to be obtained. The patented ver-
sion of this technology [140] uses three internal condensers (not shown
in the figure) instead of two external condensers I and II. They are
placed in three areas of the facility and have been designed for the
continuous discharge of oil vapours. They consist of two concentric
tubes: an outer (closed) tube, and an inner (open) one [19]. Cooling
water is supplied to the outer tube, on the surface of which vertical
wheel-shaped radiators are located. Oil condensing on the radiators
drips into a horizontal gutter. The heated water leaves the condenser
within the inner tube and oil through a hydraulic closure connector.
The cooler nozzles are located at different heights in the three sections
of the pyrolyser for separating different fractions of oil (light, medium,
heavy).
The gas fraction, not condensed, creates, along with hydrogen, trace
amounts of carbon monoxide and dioxide and water vapour, a com-
bustible gas which comes out through a hydraulic (water trap) nozzle
lock and, following compression, is stored in a tank. After treatment,
this gas can be used to power the furnace or the burners heating the
pyrolyser. Excess gas can be burned in the engine connected to the
generator and used to produce electricity for technological purposes or
for resale [140].
The solid residue (char and steel cord) is compressed in a conical
screw conveyor, which prevents air from entering the pyrolyser from
the outside. In a sufficiently long conical channel of this conveyor, this
fraction is activated thermally and with water vapour (first section),
cooled with air (second section) and water coolers (third section) and
then separated on a sieve (fourth section). Fig. 39 shows parts of the
channel with the last two sections only (Table 5).
6. Results
This review article analyses publications relating to the pyrolysis of
used tyres in terms of the reactors used by their authors, the efficiency
of these reactors and the proportion of pyrolytic products obtained: oil,
gas and solid residue, mainly soot or char.
The characteristics of the reactors used, their diagrams, short de-
scriptions of their structure and principles of operation and technolo-
gical parameters, such as temperature, pressure, inert gas type or its
lack, heating rate HR, residence time of volatiles or solids in the re-
actors, described above, are presented in tabular form.
W.M. Lewandowski, et al.
Fig. 39. Moving bed reactor for the pyrolysis of whole tyres [19,24,140].
Fig. 40. Product fractions (wt%) in different types of fixed bed reactors and for
all pyrolysis temperatures tested. (For interpreting the references to colours in
this figure, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.).
Table 2 relates to reactors with a fixed bed of shredded tyres. Tables
3, 4 and 5 respectively, list the results of waste tyre pyrolysis in reactors
with pneumatic, mechanical and gravitational charge mixing. The ta-
bles also show the mass yields of the liquid (oil), gas and solid fractions.
The oil and solid residues were measured directly, but the gas yields,
difficult to measure directly owing to the presence of inert gas and
possible leakages in the pyrolytic plant, were calculated from a differ-
ence of 100 percent.
The mass yields of waste tyre recycling (wt%) obtained for different
types of pyrolysis reactors are compared in the graphical form of
Ossanna diagrams, developed for three-component mixtures and de-
scribed in [147]. This way of presenting the results of tyre pyrolysis was
first suggested in [4].
The first Ossanna diagram (Fig. 40) shows the results obtained for
all the fixed bed reactors described in this article and all the pyrolysis
temperatures applied. The fluidised bed reactor (bubbling, spouted,
circular) product yields obtained for all temperatures are shown in
49
Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 140 (2019) 25–53
Fig. 41. Product fractions (wt%) of waste tyres in all types of fluidised bed
reactors for all pyrolysis temperatures tested. (For interpreting the references to
colours in this figure, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.).
Fig. 41. Fig. 42 shows the results of waste tyre pyrolysis obtained in
reactors with mechanical charge transport. The results of pyrolysis in
reactors with gravitational transport of tyres are not shown in this way,
because not enough cases of this type of reactor were found in the lit-
erature. The last diagram (Fig. 43) compares the yields of pyrolysis
products (marked in bold in the tables) obtained in different types of
reactors but at similar process temperatures (ca 500 °C).
6. Conclusion
The tables and graphical summaries of performance results and
proportions of tyre pyrolysis products, depending on the type of re-
actors used, allow for a comprehensive analysis of the problem. Too
much detail at the stage of designing research or industrial installations
hinders the optimal selection of the right concept. We hope this com-
pilation will make it easier for designers, engineers and scientists to
make the best decision regarding the subject of further research,
W.M. Lewandowski, et al.
Fig. 42. Product fractions (wt%) in mechanical reactors for all pyrolysis tem-
peratures tested. (For interpreting the references to colours in this figure, the
reader is referred to the web version of this article.).
Fig. 43. Product fractions (wt%) (marked in bold in the tables) at the same
temperature of about 500 °C in different types of reactors.
constructional solutions and the technological parameters involved in
the pyrolytic recycling of used tyres. These problems, along with the
ever increasing levels of motor vehicle traffic, will only become more
pressing.
We hope that this work will inspire others to improve existing
technological solutions and search for new ones.
The presentation and comparison of results of studies by different
authors using different approaches in one study, i.e.:
• technologies (vacuum, atmospheric, with inert gas, with catalyst,
microwave, etc.),
• thermal parameters (temperatures ranging from 375 to 900 °C and
HR),
• types and sizes of feedstock (truck, car or bicycle tyres, particle sizes
or whole tyres),
• mechanisms of charge transport within the reactor (pneumatic,
50
Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 140 (2019) 25–53
mechanical, gravitational)
• and the scales of the processes, from laboratory to industrial, was an
extremely difficult undertaking, which the analysis of the results in
this work merely serves to underscore.
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by the National Centre for Research and
Development Poland, No POIR.01.01.01-00-0374/17
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