THE SCIENCE

Thermal conversion, explained straight.

A tire is mostly rubber, carbon black, and steel, and the rubber is made from oil. Continuous thermal conversion (pyrolysis) returns it toward that state. The rubber is heated at high temperature in an atmosphere with no oxygen, so it does not burn: it decomposes into recoverable oil and gas, leaving carbon black and steel behind.

RECOVERY BALANCE

What a ton of tires becomes.

In a representative Revive plant, each ton of end-of-life tires is recovered as roughly the following, by mass:

1 ton

End-of-life tires

Yield by mass

  1. Tire pyrolysis oil40 to 45%
  2. Recovered carbon black30 to 35%
  3. Recycled steel10 to 15%
  4. Process gas5 to 10%
The arcs run clockwise from twelve, in the order listed above. Shares are given as ranges because feedstock varies; the ring is drawn at the midpoint of each range, scaled so the four arcs close the circle. Representative tire pyrolysis yields, Revive figures to be confirmed.

Tire pyrolysis oil.

Our founding instinct was to put recovered oil back in the ground. After consulting people across the environmental field, we concluded that while the world still runs on fossil fuels, the better move is displacement: supplying recovered fuel to the existing market means less drilling, fewer pipelines, and fewer spills. A significant share of a barrel's lifetime carbon footprint comes from extraction, refining, and transport, and recovered fuel carries none of it. When dependence on fossil fuels declines, returning pyrolysis oil to the ground becomes the right answer, and it remains our stated long-term goal.

Render of a glass flask of amber fuel with a falling golden droplet

Recovered carbon black.

Carbon black is a sought-after manufacturing input, used to reinforce and stabilize rubber; roughly a third of a car tire is carbon black to begin with. Recovering it means it can go back into new rubber and other products instead of being produced from fresh fossil feedstock. We are also exploring reforestation applications modeled on seedball programs, in which carbon-coated seeds stabilize soil and protect seeds until germination.

Render of a pyramid of matte black carbon spheres, one split open

Recycled steel.

Every tire is built around steel: the belt and bead wire that give it its shape and strength. Thermal conversion leaves that steel behind, clean and free of rubber. We separate and bale it for steel mills, where it re-enters the supply chain as recycled feedstock.

Render of a bale of clean steel wire recovered from tires

Process gas.

In most legacy pyrolysis plants, this non-condensable gas is siphoned off and burned in open flame to keep the process hot, which creates the safety and emissions problems the industry is known for. Revive Energy takes a different approach: the gas is scrubbed with proprietary systems developed by co-founder and chemical engineer Ron Drake, then captured and fed back to power much of the plant itself.

Render of a glass sphere holding swirling pale green gas above a steel valve

ZERO WASTE

Where Revive fits in a circular economy.

The EPA summarizes zero waste as the conservation of all resources through responsible production, consumption, reuse, and recovery, without burning and without discharges to land, water, or air that threaten the environment or human health. The framework runs on four R's. Reduce what you consume. Reuse what you can. Recycle what the system handles. And recover the value in everything the first three cannot touch. End-of-life tires slip past the first three: they are built to last, and most are burned as fuel or landfilled once they wear out. Revive Energy is built for that fourth step, recovering the oil, carbon black, and steel locked inside them instead of burning or burying them.

Straight answers to the questions we hear most, from carbon footprint to tires.

Read the FAQ