Deakin partners to convert old tyres to electricity

A new collaboration between Deakin University’s Recycling and Clean Energy Commercialisation Hub (REACH) and industry partner Clean Energy Resources (CER) aims to develop novel technologies to convert old tyres into electricity, hydrogen and other important resources.

The partnership between Deakin and Geelong-based CER will develop a technology that provides a new way to generate electricity from end-of-life tyres without harming the environment.

Deakin’s Professor Abbas Kouzani and his multidisciplinary team will work with CER on the project, leveraging the team’s success in creating a solar panel recycling plant.

Professor Kouzani said: “The development of novel scalable technologies that can address real-world problems is a significant challenge for the Australian recycling industry and one that my team is very enthusiastic about working on.

“Innovations in this space have the potential for immediate global impact and can assist in solving a pressing environmental pollution problem.”

Each year in Australia, 48 million tyres reach the end of their life, with only a small number recycled domestically – two thirds of used tyres end up in landfill or are illegally dumped.

Clean Energy Resources Director Tony Carr said the the construction of an end-of-life tyres pilot-plant would be the first stage of the collaboration.

Carr said: “This project is the culmination of 30 years of work by members of the CER team and research across the world in recycling, which in the past 10 years has focused on zero emissions solutions for the problems the world faces with all forms of waste.”

REACH is backed by a $50 million grant from the federal government’s Trailblazer Universities Program, and is is facilitating the development of greener supply chains and a circular economy.

Picture: Deakin University