Optimizing the development and performance of recovered Carbon Black for applications in "green" off-the-road tires

货物和人员的运输对全球每个现代社会的功能至关重要。除了海运和铁路运输，其他所有运输方式都要求车辆有轮胎。因此，据估计，仅在北美和欧洲就产生了近500万吨废旧汽车轮胎。遗憾的是，到目前为止，由于轮胎的尺寸大，以及它们非常复杂的结构，用于采矿、林业和重工业的车辆上的“非公路”（OTR）轮胎的回收一直是不可能的。加拿大橡胶协会（RAC）估计，加拿大约有345,000个OTR轮胎没有已知的可行回收方案，而加拿大轮胎回收机构协会（CATRA）估计，仅在加拿大，2019年就生产了约421,200吨废轮胎。拟议的nserc联盟项目建立在Kal轮胎矿业轮胎集团（KT-MTG）和不列颠哥伦比亚大学（UBC）之间非常成功的2017年NSERC-CRD项目的基础上，该项目侧重于通过热解从OTR轮胎中提取和表征回收的炭黑（rCB）。联盟赠款的具体目标是：1)开发和确定生产源自OTR轮胎热解的rCB的处理升级的处理条件；2)修改和表征新制备的rCB，使其适合于工业应用（例如，塑料或颜料）；3)制备橡胶化合物（用于轮胎翻新应用）并测试其性能与用原始CB制成的橡胶化合物相比。这项工作对减少加拿大废轮胎对环境的不良影响的未来可能性具有深远的影响，通过消除对石化来源的废物的依赖来减少二氧化碳排放，以及开创性的加拿大技术来回收OTR轮胎并将获得的废物重新用于下一代“绿色”轮胎。

The transport of goods and people is critical for the function of every modern society globally. With the exception of marine and rail transport, every other mode of transport requires vehicles to have tires. Consequently, it is estimated that nearly 5 million tonnes of waste automotive tires are produced in North America and Europe alone. Regrettably, recycling of "off-the-road" (OTR) tires used on vehicles in the mining, forestry and heavy industries until now has not been possible, due to the large size of the tires, as well as their very sophisticated construction. The Rubber Association of Canada (RAC) estimated that there are ~345,000 OTR tires in Canada with no known feasible solution for recycling, while the Canadian Association of Tire Recycling Agencies (CATRA) estimated that ~421,200 tonnes of waste tires were produced in 2019 in Canada alone. The proposed NSERC-Alliance project builds on a very successful 2017 NSERC-CRD project between Kal Tire Mining Tire Group (KT-MTG) and the University of British Columbia (UBC), which focused on the extraction and characterization of recovered Carbon Black (rCB) from OTR tires via pyrolysis. The specific objectives of the Alliance grant are to: 1) Develop and identify processing conditions for upscaling of treatments for the production of rCB originating from OTR tire pyrolysis, 2) Modify and characterize the newly prepared rCB to make it suitable for adaptation in industrial applications (e.g., plastics or pigments), and 3) Prepare rubber compounds (for possible use in tire retread applications) and test their performance in comparison to rubber compounds made with virgin CB. This work has a far reaching implications for the future possibilities of reducing the undesirable environmental impact of waste tires in Canada, reducing CO2 emissions by eliminating dependence on petrochemically-sourced CB, as well as pioneering Canadian technology to recycle OTR tires and repurpose the obtained rCB in the next generation of "green" tires.