Swedish tyre-recycling technology saves valuable resources and cuts emissions
Enviro's feasibility study led to a joint venture with Michelin to build a tyre recycling plant in Chile. Using patented pyrolysis technology, the plant will recover valuable materials like carbon black and oil from 25,000–30,000 tonnes of tyres annually. The project supports Michelin’s sustainability goals and showcases Nordic innovation in circular economy and fossil resource reduction.
Enviro (Scandinavian Enviro Systems AB)
Sweden
Chile
Industry and services
The Swedish company Scandinavian Enviro Systems (Enviro)‘s patented technology will soon be used in a tyre recycling plant in Chile, co-owned by Michelin and Enviro through a local joint venture. The patented pyrolysis technology makes tyre recycling more efficient and helps recover valuable resources from waste tyres, such as carbon black, oil, steel and gas.
The establishment of a plant in South America started with a conditional loan from Nopef for a feasibility study. In 2014, Enviro was granted Nopef funding to facilitate its plan to establish a recycling plant for end-of-life tyres in Chile. In 2021, as a result of the tangible measures Enviro had taken to establish the recycling plant, the loan was converted into a grant with no repayment requirement.
“Converting the loan into a grant is clearly financially beneficial but, most importantly, it provides further tangible evidence of how we are gradually executing and realising our commercialisation and expansion,” says Thomas Sörensson, CEO, Enviro.
Nordic circular economy solution limits the need for fossil exploitation
Michelin’s strategy for the future is based mainly on recycled and sustainable materials, and the company aims to make its tyres 100% sustainable by 2050. One step in the process of achieving this is recovering carbon black from used tyres using Enviro’s ground-breaking technology.
Enviro’s patented pyrolysis technology makes tyre recycling more efficient and enables the recovery of valuable resources, limiting the need for fossil exploitation.
The tyre recycling plant in Chile will have an annual recycling capacity of 25,000-30,000 tonnes, which corresponds to about 60% of the mining tyres, so-called earthmover tyres, that Chile scraps each year.
“According to Enviro’s expansion plan, we could potentially establish about 30 plants globally by 2030, so there is great potential for achieving a major positive environmental impact with the help of our technology,” says Sörensson.
Nopef provides financing for feasibility studies aimed at demonstration, scaling and growth of Nordic green and sustainable solutions on global markets and is funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers.
“Enviro’s joint venture in Chile is a great example of how Nopef is supporting the internationalisation of Nordic green companies and thereby contributing to the Nordic Vision of making the Nordics the most sustainable region in the world,” says Mikael Reims, Vice President, Origination, Nefco.
