Waste tire rubber devulcanization technologies: State-of-the-art, limitations and future perspectives

Abstract

Waste tires management is a serious and global environmental problem. Therefore, searching for low-cost and industrial-scale applicable tire recycling methods is gaining more and more attention. Waste tire rubber is valuable source of secondary raw materialsforthecircular economy and current trends indicate that application of waste rubbers during manufacturing value-added productsshould increase in near future. Sustainable development of rubber devulcanization technologies and appropriate design of cradle-to-cradle loops for rubber goods are the most promising strategies for achieving a higher level of rubber recycling. This work presents the state-of-the-art in the patented waste tire rubber devulcanization technologies including dynamic desulfurization, reactive extrusion, microwave treatment, and also other less popular methods. Special attention was focused on the used components, rubber treatment conditions and static mechanical properties of reclaimed rubbers. Moreover, environmental aspects and limitations related to rubber devulcanization technologies implementation are also discussed. Our findings showed that reclaimed rubbers described in patents are characterized by higher tensile strength and elongation break (depending on devulcanization technology median: 16.6-19.0 MPa and 321-443%, respectively) compared to the literature data (median: 10.3 MPa and 309%) or commercial products (median: 6.8 MPa and 250%). The significant differences observed in performance properties of reclaimed rubbers resulted mainly from devulcanization efficiency related to waste tires composition or source and rubber treatment conditions. Considering environmental and economic aspects, reactive extrusion is the most promising method further development rubber devulcanization technologies.

Keywords: Devulcanization; Recycling; State-of-the-art; Waste management; Waste tires.