“The industry of comprehensive utilization of waste rubber faces two ‘major obstacles’: one is market sluggishness and the other is environmental pressure,” said Ni Xuewen, President of the First-session of the Association of the Ninth Meeting of China Rubber Industry Association Comprehensive Utilization of Waste Rubber Branch and Chairman of Nantong Huili Rubber Co., Ltd., at the Membership Representative Conference of China Rubber Industry Association Comprehensive Utilization of Waste Rubber Branch & 2016 National Forum of the Information and Technology on Green Utilization of Waste Rubber, “The harder time we face, the more urgent it is for the industry to achieve transformation as well as breakthroughs and promotion. The work of the new association is to abide by the industrial development philosophy of ‘environmental protection going ahead of technological innovation’.”
Under Huge Pressure Posed by Obstacles, the Industry Ushers in a Major Reshuffle
“The sluggishness in the tire industry and the price drop in natural rubber have had enormous effects on the demand and market price of reclaimed rubber, causing the operation rate of many reclaimed rubber businesses to be lower than 70%.” So was told to the reporter by Huang Xianghong, Vice-General Manager of Jiangsu Zhonghong Environmental Technology Co., Ltd. In order to eliminate “little three items” and coal tar and to change the desulfurization method, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Finance jointly printed and issued Action Plan for Reduction of Volatile Organic Compounds in Key Industries in July this year. Aimed at existing problems, it was clearly pointed out that in three years “we will fully promote the continuous desulfurization process under atmospheric pressure in the reclaimed rubber industry, completely eliminate dynamic desulfurization tanks and replace poisonous and harmful additives like the coal tar with green ones”.
According to the statistics collected from 33 key companies in the waste rubber industry from January to September, despite an increase of 10.43% in the output of reclaimed rubber and a basically stable output of rubber powder, the realized industrial output value at current price dropped by 3.10% on a year-on-year basis and the realized sales revenue dropped by 1.19%.
The reporter learned from materials on the leadership transition and re-election of the Waste Rubber Council that ten companies applied for membership including Hengshui Huarui Engineering Rubber Co., Ltd. Moreover, Anhui Global Village New Materials Co., Ltd. and Tiantai Kunrong Rubber Co., Ltd. initiatively applied to be promoted to be council units. At the same time, however, the qualification of twelve companies was degraded in the council due to failure to pay membership fees in 2014 and 2015.
“A batch of new and wider-ranged companies entered the association while others quitted or were degraded. As the association gets rid of stale members and takes in fresh ones, it becomes increasingly more vigorous. Over the years, the association branch has seen both a substantial increase in the number of members as well as remarkable changes and adjustment in structures, while striding toward modern enterprises in terms of the operating model and running mode,” said Deng Yali, President of the China Rubber Industry Association.
First Goes Environmental Protection, Making Green Development Promising
“Things have changed. Days when businesses are small-sized, scattered, dirty and untidy have gone. Specifications for industrial behaviors are being put into practice. Green development, intelligent development and clean production are under way. Paces for advancing enterprise transformation and facility upgrading are being sped up,” said Gao Shixing, former President of the council and General Manager of BESG Xingyu (Tangshan) Rubber & Plastics Eco-Technology Co., Ltd.
The goal to achieve green development in the industry of comprehensive utilization of waste rubber is becoming clearer, thus attracting an increasing amount of industrial capital to be invested in the transformation and upgrading of the industry and a rising number of sagacious men to carry out further practice thereby.
Anhui Global Village New Materials Co., Ltd. entered the waste rubber industry from a high starting point. By integrating cutting-edge technologies, facilities and resources in the industry from Russia, the United States, Canada, Germany, etc, the Company is going to build a unique and world-leading demonstration line for reclaimed rubber production that features environmental protection and circular economy, in an effort to achieve the ultimate goal of building a closed whole-industry chain ecosphere featuring “resource-product-waste-renewable resource” so as to occupy the high ground of market in a preemptive manner and to build a “global and international” industrial system.
In addition, Beijing Environment Sanitation Engineering Group Co., Ltd. and Tangshan Xingyu Capital reorganized into BESG Xingyu (Tangshan) Rubber & Plastics Eco-Technology Co., Ltd. Plus, Guangxi Yuanjing Renewable Resources Co. Ltd. and Genox Recycling Tech Co., Ltd. were listed for transfer on National Equities Exchange and Quotations. Jiangsu Zhonghong Environmental Technology Co., Ltd. also formed an alliance with other strong enterprises. All these efforts were made to adapt to the development of the market economy.
The continuous desulfurization process and facility under atmospheric pressure is vigorously promoted within the industry, and progress has been made in the R&D and manufacturing work, which has been applied in over 200 manufacturers at home and abroad. The green environment-protecting granular renewable rubber product lines that are independently researched and developed by Beijing University of Chemical Technology,
Qingdao University of Science and Technology, China Rubber Resource Regeneration (Qingdao) Co., Ltd. as well as Jiangsu Zhonghong Environmental Technology Co., Ltd. and are introduced for R&D by Anhui Global Village New Materials Co., Ltd. are going to be put into practical use respectively this year.
Technological Innovation Guarantees Transformation and Upgrading
“Different from other industries, the waste rubber industry basically applies a flow production method, which is demanding environmentally. To overcome the difficulty of exhaust gas, firstly, the reclaimed rubber industry has to be equipped with closed and green facilities. Therefore, factories need to be transformed toward being more intelligent, and build all-closed, automatic and green reclaimed rubber (rubber powder) product lines.” In terms of issues like lean production and intelligent manufacturing, Fan Rende, Honorary President of CRIA, said that the reclaimed rubber industry needs to utilize the Internet of Things and Big Data to collect information, analyze data and monitor flow direction while building a network platform for information on the waste rubber industry, raw materials and product trading. Meanwhile, it should also take advantage of the opportunity of the “Belt and Road Initiative” to develop the industry of waste rubber utilization abroad and to keep waste rubber pollution outside China, thus making contributions to the development of the green rubber industry for China and the rest of the world.
Shen Jun, Vice-General Manager of China Rubber Resource Regeneration (Qingdao) Co., Ltd. told the reporter that the Company started the ceremony for supercritical carbon dioxide regeneration, where they combined supercritical extraction with regeneration and extracted pollutants from rubber powder. Now they have finished the pilot scale experiment, and in the future they can produce environment-friendly reclaimed rubber with rubber powder that meets demand for environmental protection.
Sichuan Hope & Hot-pulse Microwave Tech. Co., Ltd. applied their microwave technology to the desulfurization of rubber granule and rubber powder, which can help reduce or contain no addition of desulfurization additive, reducing the amount of harmful gas. The carbon black generated from microwave-pyrolyzed waste tires is equal to semi-reinforcing carbon black in terms of function. The Company has signed with China Carbon Black Institute to conduct cooperation in developing the scientific research and application of that technology.
