Sandpoint firm tackling waste tire conundrum

SANDPOINT — A Sandpoint company is getting its arms around one of the most problematic waste streams on the planet.

New Black Technologies has developed microwave-based process to recycle waste tires. NBT’s patent-pending microwave tire destruction system exposes chipped tires to electromagnetic radiation in an oxygen-free chamber where they are broken down into valuable commodities including oil, gas and carbon black, a valuable industrial chemical.

More than 300 million tires are discarded in the U.S. alone, according to NBT CEO Bryce Powell. Some are stockpiled and become breeding grounds for disease-carrying rodents and insects. They also pose environmental risks through uncontrolled fires.

Tire fires, depending on the age and composition of the material, have the potential to release pollutants including pyrolytic oils, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, sulfur oxides, benzene, volatile organics and heavy metals, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Some tires are buried, where they take up massive amounts of space, never biodegrade and are not commercially recoverable. Still more are backloaded on barges en route to China, where they are burned with lax emission controls, according to Powell, who is also a Sandpoint attorney.

“These solutions are neither desirable nor sustainable,” said Powell. “The valuable resources contained in tires present a tremendous opportunity for a technology capable of recovering them.”

Carbon black is among the top 50 industrial chemicals in the world and is used as filler material in nearly every black plastic or rubber good that’s manufactured. Goodrich Tire Co. began replacing white pigments in car tires with carbon black, increasing tire longevity by 100 times and tensile strength by 1,000 percent, according to Powell.

“Without carbon black, tires would need to be changed every 450 miles and the modern automobile culture could not exist,” said Powell.

Though the company is headquartered in Sandpoint, it’s full-scale commercial equipment is located in Ashtabula, Ohio. Powell said the equipment recently completed its test phase and NBT is raising capital to construct its first commercial plant, which will process more than six million tires annually and recover roughly 25,000 tons of carbon black, six million gallons of fuel oil and 800 million cubic feet of synthesis gas.

Powell believes NBT’s process is the most efficient and profitable means of tire recycling ever developed.

“This disruptive technology presents and environmentally sound solutions to the problem of waste tires and a means to recover and reuse valuable resources here in the United States,” said Powell.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.