Mercy Manyuchi
Harare Institute of Technology, Zimbabwe
Title: Potential of Producing Carbon Black from Waste Tyres
Biography
Biography: Mercy Manyuchi
Abstract
The disposal of used tires generated each year into the environment is unacceptable, in Zimbabwe alone, which was the basis of this study; approximately 2.4 million tires are disposed each year. A better solution from an environmental and economic stand point is to thermally reprocess the tires into valuable products like carbon black which is required. This study focused on the feasibility study on the pyrolysis of waste tires to give carbon black, pyrolytic oil, steel and syngas as waste products. The waste tires were first shredded followed by the removal of metals. Shredded tires were pyrolysed at 450-500°C for 2 hours. Carbon black with a yield of 40% was achieved as well as some oils and volatile gases. The carbon black obtained can be activated and used for various purposes like filling in tiers and other rubber products.