Tire pyrolysis char: Processes, properties, upgrading and applications
Open accessAbstract
Waste tires are solid wastes with large annual output and with the potential for great harm to the environment. The pyrolysis of waste tires can recycle energy and produce reusable products. Although there are many reviews in the literature in regard to the pyrolysis characteristics of waste tires, no one paper focuses on reviewing and summarizing the tire char. This paper critically appraises the achievements of earlier reports and literature and assesses the current state-of-the-art for the production and application of tire char from waste tires. Initially, the thermal decomposition behavior of different tire rubbers is discussed and compared where it is shown that the different components of waste tire rubber have different thermal degradation characteristics. The influencing factors on the yield and quality of tire char are discussed and assessed in terms of different pyrolysis reactors and technologies, tire type and composition, and a range of pyrolysis process conditions. The composition of the waste tire and pyrolysis conditions are the main factors affecting the distribution of pyrolysis products. Pyrolysis technology and reactor equipment also have an effect on the distribution of pyrolysis products. The physical and chemical structural characteristics of tire char are critically reviewed in detail, including a comparison of the fundamental differences with commercial carbon black and modified tire char (physical activation and chemical activation). Finally, high-value application fields and developmental prospects of tire char are summarized. Through extensive literature review, a novel development was that tire char could be used as a source of graphene. The economic analysis of the various tire char applications should be one of the main research directions in the future. The keynote of this review is to promote intensification of waste tire recycling and treatment so that more tire char can be obtained from waste tire pyrolysis and thereby be reused in different applications to obtain more value.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Tire pyrolysis generally involves thermal decomposition in an inert atmosphere at elevated temperatures (typically 400-600°C), breaking polymeric structures into volatile vapors that condense into liquid oil and non-condensable gases, leaving solid char.
“Following initial mechanical pre-treatment, the chemical transformation of tires during pyrolysis generally involves thermal decomposition in an inert atmosphere at elevated temperatures (typically 400-600 • C), where complex polymeric structures break down into volatile vapors that subsequently condense into liquid oil and non-condensable gases, leaving behind a solid char residue [338,343,344].”
From Biofuels, E-Fuels, and Waste-Derived Fuels: Advances, Challenges, and Future Directions (2025) · cites this paper as [344]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 400 · Cited by 188
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- Dr. Cui Quan is an associate Professor at the School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi ' an Jiaotong University, China. She received her B.E. and Ph.D. degrees in Environmental Engi neering at Dalian University of Technology in 2007 and 2012, respectively. From 2012 to 2015, she worked as an assistant Professor at The School of Chemical Engineering, Dalian Uni versity of Technology, China. She worked as a visiting scholar at the University of Hull, UK from 2016 to 2017. Her current research interests include solid waste thermochemical con version and resource utilization, oil upgrading by catalytic pyrolysis/steam reforming, carbon materials from biomass/ coal and their application. She has published over 30 refereed research journal articles. She is a recipient of the award of the Royal Society K.C. Wong International Fellowship in 2020.
- Laura Santamaria received her B.Sc. degree from the Uni versity of Valladolid (UVA) in 2011. Afterwards, she got a Ph. D. in 2019 in Chemical Engineering (UPV/EHU). In 2018 she worked as a visiting scholar in the Department of "Decentral ized Energy Conversion (DEU)", of the Institute of Combustion and Power Plant Technology at University of Stuttgart (Ger many). Her research activity is focused on the development of heterogeneous catalysts and the production of valuable fuels and products from wastes (plastics, biomass, sewage sludge etc.) by thermochemical conversion strategies such as pyroly sis, gasification and pyrolysis-reforming. She has published over 20 refereed research journal articles.
- Authors
- Gao, N., Wang, F., Quan, C., Santamaria, L., Lopez, G., & Williams, P. T.
- Affiliations
- Xi'an Jiaotong University (CN)
- University of the Basque Country (ES)
- University of Leeds (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Gao, Ningbo
- Williams, Paul T.
- Venue
- Progress in Energy and Combustion Science
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2022-11
- Volume
- 93
- Pages
- 101022
- ISSN
- 0360-1285 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4294150034
- Cited by
- 188
- References
- 400
- Citations by year
- 2026: 37 · 2025: 62 · 2024: 44 · 2023: 39 · 2022: 6
- FWCI
- 10.98
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Progress in Energy and Combustion Science (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- White Rose Research Online (University of Leeds, The University of Sheffield, University of York) (acceptedVersion)
- Communities in ADDI (University of the Basque Country) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Hispana (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/S017127/1)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Thermochemical Biomass Conversion Processes
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Building and Construction › Recycling and utilization of industrial and municipal waste in materials production
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Thermal and Kinetic Analysis
- Keywords
- waste tire pyrolysis, waste tire recycling, pyrolysis product distribution, carbon black comparison, physical activation, chemical activation, graphene synthesis
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
