The world faces a big problem. Every year, more than a billion scrap tires are generated globally including approximately 300 million in the U.S. You see them on the road, in streams and creating huge mountains at landfills. In the U.S., 60% of scrap tires are used for tire-derived fuel or landfilled. In addition to tires, millions of tons of non-tire scrap rubber are generated annually. The world needs a solution to unlock the value of scrap rubber.
Austin Rubber developed a new patented devulcanization process to transform end-of-life rubber into blend of elastomers and carbon black. The process effectively devulcanizes scrap rubber in an affordable, environmentally sustainable process while maintaining quality and allowing subsequent use as a compound substitute for high value applications including tires, industrial rubber, footwear and other rubber compound goods. We call this upcycling.
Below are some benefits of Austin Rubber’s technology.
- Patented chemical devulcanization process to upcycle scrap rubber into virgin compound substitute, APX® Devulcanized Rubber
- During devulcanization process, APO™ Plasticizer is also extracted and serves as a high-quality, economically-priced additive replacement for new rubber compounds
- Components are worth more separated because users can better manage new compound formulations
- Reduces raw material cost without sacrificing performance properties
- Reduces compound mixing and other processing costs
- Expands use of recycled materials to achieve sustainability goals
- In-house compounding facility has a broad library of formulations available for customer use
- Work with customers to incorporate and optimize APX® into existing applications