Simulation and techno-economical analysis on the pyrolysis process of waste tire

Waste tires are more and more produced with the fast development of the auto industry and transportation and the traditional disposal method of landfill and dumping has been forbidden by many countries. It is important to choose effective disposal methods for a circular economy and sustainable development strategy. In this paper, we reviewed the different disposal ways of waste tires, analyzed their advantages and disadvantages, and thought pyrolysis is the most promising method. To evaluate the techno-economical performance of the pyrolysis process, the simulation model was built based on the pyrolysis process kinetics, and the further processing of pyrolysis oil and carbon was also considered in the simulation model. Different waste tires processing capacities were simulated and the results showed that under the low processing capacity of 20,000 ton/a, the profit of waste tire pyrolysis treatment is very low and the investment payback period is as long as about 76 years, whereas when the processing capacity reaches 50,000 tons per year, it will have a good profit and the investment payback period is shortened to 3.6 years. Further increasing the processing capacity will result in an approximately linear increase in revenue, but only a slow investment payback period. •Simulation model was built for the whole pyrolysis process of waste tire.•The techno-economical analysis of different processing capacities were carried out.•The optimal processing capacity was obtained based on investment payback period.