Energy from ELTs
Energy Recovery: a resource for Italian industry
When the market of applications is not able to absorb all the available recycled rubber, energy recovery assures the closing of the virtuous cycle. It avoids the accumulation of tyres and assures the valorisation of 100% of collected ELTs.
A necessary balance
The efforts of Ecopneus are aimed at favouring material recovery over energy recovery. This is in line with the European waste management hierarchy. However, assuring efficient outlets for all materials is essential for the overall sustainability of the system.
A market of recycled rubber still under consolidation together with regulatory and productive limitations of certain sectors of application make energy recovery a fundamental lever to avoid tyre accumulation and assure that every collected ELT is effectively valorised.
Moreover, this efficient fuel complies with the needs of energy-consuming companies dealing with high the energy costs that characterise Italy.
The Tyrefuel materials
The Tyrefuel materials derive from the treatment of End-of-Life Tyres and they identify the parts of rubber destined to energy recovery. It is high-quality fuel used mainly in cement factories as an alternative to traditional fossil fuels. Several typologies of Tyrefuel materials are obtained from ELT treatment process, e.g.: shreds, chips, textile fibres and, to a lesser extent, whole tyres. They are all used for energy production and the reduction of the environmental impact of industrial processes.
The advantages of the Tyrefuel materials
High calorific power
The calorific power of rubber is comparable to the one of pet-coke -the fossil fuel traditionally used in high energy-consuming industrial processes.
Replacement of fossil fuels
The Tyrefuel materials allow to reduce the use of more polluting and imported fuels. This improves the overall emission scenario of the plants that use them.
Combined recovery of energy and material
In cement factories, the residues of combustion – steel and ashes – are not discarded, but they are directly incorporated in cement, replacing other virgin raw materials.
Quality and traceability
The Ecopneus chain assures that the Tyrefuel materials comply with rigorous standard and they are given exclusively to qualified and authorised plants, with full traceability of all flows.
The figures of the 2024 energy recovery
In 2024, the Ecopneus system energetically recovered 115,981 tonnes of material deriving from ELTs. They are divided as follows:
93,623t
shreds, chips and SRFs used in cement factories (81%)
14,281t
whole ELTs used for the production of electricity (12%)
8,078t
Textile fibres used as fuel (7%)