ELT chemical recycling plant inaugurated in the Netherlands, among Europe’s most advanced at full scale

At the Delfzijl chemical cluster in Groningen, the Netherlands, Circtec recently inaugurated, in the presence of King Willem-Alexander, a chemical recycling plant for end-of-life tyres using its proprietary CIFR pyrolysis technology. With Phase 1 now operational, the plant can recycle 50,000 tonnes per year of end-of-life tyres (ELTs) and, once fully ramped up, will be one of the largest and most advanced facilities of its kind in Europe, producing: HUPA sustainable marine fuel; circular naphtha for the manufacture of plastics, polymers and chemicals; and high-quality recovered carbon black (rCB) for re-use in tyre, rubber and plastics production. The plant can also supply tyre pyrolysis oil as a sustainable feedstock to petrochemical plants and refineries.

Circtec plans to start construction of Phase 2 of the plant by the end of 2026, expanding capacity on a modular basis to a total throughput of 200,000 tonnes per year of ELTs. The Delfzijl plant is the culmination of a 15-year technology and product development programme. At full scale, the Delfzijl site will be able to process around 6% of Europe’s annual end-of-life tyres, over 50% of which are currently burned in cement kilns or exported to Asia for environmentally damaging disposal.

An ISO-standard Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the investment in the Circtec plant indicates that, once fully ramped up and operating at maximum capacity, it will reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by an amount equivalent to around 3% of the national emissions attributable to the Netherlands’ chemical industry sector.

Long-term supply agreements covering the full output of the new Circtec plant have already been announced: Birla Carbon, one of the world’s leading producers of carbon black, will take the entire volume of recovered carbon black (rCB) for use in its Continua product line; bp has contracted the full output of HUPA, circular naphtha and tyre pyrolysis oil.

In May 2024, investment funds Novo Holdings and A.P. Moller Holding announced the successful closure of a 150 million euros funding round to back Circtec. Over the coming years, the company plans to develop multiple projects globally, both as wholly owned and directly operated plants and through joint ventures under licensing arrangements.

“Circtec is now moving forward to operate the first phase of this plant and to expand it to its full designed capacity. Let us work together to scale this success further, so that this plant can set an example for other similar projects, not only here in the Netherlands, helping to rethink how waste is managed and to reimagine value. And let us keep moving forward — tenaciously, innovatively and with strategic vision – towards a sustainable and resilient industrial future,” said Allen Timpany, CEO and co-founder of Circtec.