Continental invests in new recycling technology to recover raw materials from waste rubber

With the acquisition of an exclusive patent family and the commissioning of a newly developed pilot facility for the production of purified pyrolysis oil, Continental is harnessing the industrial potential of pyrolysis technology for the first time and laying the foundation for recycling complex rubber compounds on an industrial scale.

The technological solution employed by the group sector ContiTech is designed to recover high-quality raw materials from waste rubber and systematically replace fossil resources.

The technology is based on a thermal process in which waste rubber is broken down into its basic chemical components. Among other things, this produces a high-quality oil that is comparable in quality to fossil crude oil and can serve as a basis for new rubber and plastic products in the future. Originally developed by British start-up LowSulphurFuels, the new purification facility uses a special method to process this oil for industrial use.

“With this technology, we’re closing a crucial gap in the circular materials economy: we’re able to recover high-quality raw materials from rubber waste, which we can then feed back into the chemical material cycle to create new products without relying on crude oil,” says Dr. Michael Hofmann, Chief Technology Officer at ContiTech. “We’re thus demonstrating how innovation can become the driving force behind sustainable industrial processes – and how a previously untapped raw material cycle can be made economically viable.

Complex rubber products in particular, such as food-grade hoses and rubber-metal composites with various additives and complex material structures, have so far posed a major challenge in terms of recycling. The materials experts at ContiTech see purified pyrolysis oil as a promising solution for reintegrating these product groups back into the material cycle in the future.