Newcastle University and Wastefront announce partnership to drive innovation in recovered carbon black

Wastefront AS and Newcastle University today announce a partnership to undertake a study into the characterisation and enhancement of Wastefront’s recovered carbon black (rCB).

Newcastle Uni’s partnership with Nordic circularity company Wastefront will see industry innovation take place in the North East, ensuring the region is at the forefront of progressing circularity across Europe.

Wastefront is now gearing up to play a crucial role in eliminating the UK’s waste tyres export, creating a local, circular solution to a global problem.

Through preventing the burning of waste tyres in cement kilns, Wastefront will use commercial operating technologies to convert end-of-life-tyres (ELTs) into useful commodities including rCB.

The study will focus on rCB interaction with rubbers and its correlation with industrial applications, supporting Wastefront’s efforts to enable the rCB it produces to be used in new products.

The scope of work undertaken by Newcastle University over the next 18 months will develop methods to reduce inorganic components in rCB, improving its chemical and material properties to ensure Wastefront produces a superior product compared with its rCB competitors. This will include identifying rCB reinforcement in rubber goods.

Wastefront CTO, Henrik Selstam, comments: “Circularity is central to the work Wastefront is undertaking to tackle the scourge of ELTs - and expanding our understanding of recovered carbon black is key to realising this goal. As we continue to grow, so too will the uses and capabilities of our products - none more so than recovered carbon black.”

Professor Brian Walker adds: “We are delighted to add this exciting partnership with Wastefront to our portfolio of research that advances sustainable innovation and the circular economy and enables progress towards a net-zero economy.

“Wastefront will promote inclusive economic growth here in the North East, with its roots in the local area and the construction of its new plant at the Port of Sunderland.”

Once fully operational in 2025, Wastefront’s £100m tyre recycling plant in Sunderland will produce rCB from a supply of 20% of the UK’s yearly total of ELTs. By integrating Wastefront’s rCB into new tyres, the emissions for each tyre subsequently produced will be reduced by 80%.