N. America tire recycling tech heading to China

Dec 15, 2011 | 03:19 PM | Jo Isenberg-O’Loughlin

Tags  used tire recycling, scrap tires, Blue Diamond Technologies, Insigma Technology, Jo Isenberg-O'Loughlin

NEW YORK — A used-tire recycling technology born in Canada and seasoned in the United States is on its way to China, where a joint venture teaming Canada’s Blue Diamond Technologies Ltd. and China’s Insigma Technology Co. Ltd. plans to build as many as 13 facilities to produce reusable crumb rubber, clean steel and fiber from discarded vehicle tires.

The first facility, a 60,000-square-foot complex in Hangzou, where Insigma is headquartered, is scheduled to begin operating in the fourth quarter of 2012. It will incorporate Blue Diamond Technology’s patented, water-based, micro-erosion technology.

"We are able to take the rubber off a tire, turn it into a fine-mesh material and completely leave the steel intact and rubber-free. The steel looks exactly the way it looked when it went into the tire," Devron Kobluk, president of Winnipeg, Manitoba-based Blue Diamond, told AMM. "Obviously, because of the quality of the recovered steel product we would try to maximize the profit from it."....