Moving to commercialization: Sault tire recycler seeking agreements for byproducts.

• Author: Kelly, Lindsay
• Position: NEWS

Atire-recycling facility in Sault Ste. Marie is moving forward to the next phase of operation, with commercialization anticipated within the year.

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Ellsin Environmental, which set up a pilot plant in the city in 2011, has been testing its patented reverse polymerization technique for the last three years. The process breaks down used tires into its three basic elements--carbon black, oil and steel--which can then be sold to various markets.

President and CEO Daniel Kaute said the plant can currently process 900 tires a day, but the project can be scaled to serve a higher capacity of tires without risk.

He's currently working on securing buyers for the byproducts, and said he is in negotiations for agreements with 15 parties.

"We have about four MOUs (memorandums of understanding) with various parties across the world--one in the Middle East, one in North America, one in China and one in Europe--and we're working with these parties," Kaute said. "We are hoping to get into contract negotiations with the first one very soon, so within three to six months, we should hopefully have a contract in hand and the rest will be history."

While other tire-recycling plants exist, Kaute said what makes Ellsin's unique is the ability for investors and prospective buyers to see the operation in action.

Plant manager Clint Wardlaw routinely takes visitors through the plant, where they can learn about the equipment and see it operating on site. Some clients view the equipment as a self-contained mechanism for disposing of used tires, while others are interested in the machinery as an add-on to an existing business.

"So far we've done a 50-hour run, complete, without a problem," Wardlaw said. "Next, we're going to do a 150-hour run, just to prove to people that are interested that it runs and it can run for a week, 10 days, or around the clock."

Tires travel along a conveyor belt, where they're fed into an enclosed system and processed by microwaves. Water acts as a separator, separating the carbon black and steel into various containers.

A condenser on site draws off the vapour produced by the process and separates the oil into its own container, while the vapours go into a scrub area, are scrubbed of sulfur and then directed into a compressor. The resulting syn-gas is then used, in combination with natural gas, to run the plant, and any extra is sold back to the grid.

"So, basically, from the tire going in, back...