A stockpile of end-of-life tires awaiting processing.

Waste to Value · End-of-Life Tires

Tread-grade carbon from waste tires.

One proprietary low-temperature process converts end-of-life tires into tread-grade carbon black, high-aromatic oil, and self-generated process gas, with zero waste streams.

Download the brochure The technology →
The opportunity

Waste on one side. Carbon demand on the other.

The world cannot absorb the tires it discards. More than 4 billion end-of-life tires sit in stockpiles, with roughly 1.5 billion more added every year. Most are landfilled, stockpiled, or burned as low-grade fuel.

At the same time, demand for industrial carbon keeps climbing. The carbon black bound up in a tire is the same material new tires are built from, and conventional recovery rarely returns it at usable grade.

TiPs treats a scrap tire as what it is: a carbon carrier. It recovers the materials the tire already contains and returns them as saleable product.

The gap between what a scrap tire contains and what the market pays for carbon is the opportunity.

4B+ End-of-life tires stockpiled globally, with ~1.5 billion more added every year.
~14M Tons of carbon black demanded globally each year, mostly tread-grade N330.
~4B Tons of cement produced each year, a vast market for affordable bulk carbon.
85-95% Aromatic content of the recovered diluent, a high-value solvent and fuel.
The technology

The TiPs process

The Thermal-static internal Pyrophinic system (TiPs) is a sealed, low-temperature, vacuum-driven thermal mechanical depolymerization process. Instead of burning the tire, it recovers the carbon, oil, and gas, and returns each as a saleable product.

Feedstock Tire crumb rubber, 0.25 to 0.75 inch
Outputs N330 carbon black, high-aromatic diluent, and process gas
10,000+ Hours operated at full scale across feedstocks: tires, coal, oil sands. TRL 8.
24/7 Continuous feed operation, self-powered after a one-time grid startup.
100% Of every ton of feedstock becomes product, recovered water, or sold residue.
Zero Waste streams. Every fraction is sold or used in the process.
Feedstock · End-of-Life Tires

How it works here

TiPs converts tire crumb into materials validated against virgin equivalents. The carbon black is a direct N330 tread-grade replacement. Most recovered carbon black never reaches that grade; TiPs carbon does, and goes back into new tires in a closed tire-to-tire loop.

The diluent is a 200+ constituent aromatic solvent with naturally occurring d-limonene. At Noble, Oklahoma, 88,000 tons of annual crumb rubber supply is secured under a long-term agreement.

Outputs: N330-grade carbon black (Tokai Carbon validated), high-aromatic diluent and solvent (Herty / CRC validated), and fuel oil and gas that powers the unit.

“Rubber testing confirmed comparable cure behavior, strong tensile and elongation values, and equal or better abrasion resistance than the N330 control.”

Independent analysis, Sid Richardson Carbon Co, a division of TOKAI CARBON (Japan)
What a ton of crumb rubber becomes

Select a product stream to see its uses and the market it sells into.

  • Carbon black · 40%
  • Fuel oil & diluent · 45%
  • Process gas · 15%

Carbon black · 40%

Tread-grade N330 carbon black, validated against virgin material and sold back into tire manufacturing in a closed tire-to-tire loop.

Use cases

  • Tires, belts, and rubber goods
  • Advanced concrete
  • Metallurgical carbon for steel
  • Soil and agriculture

Size of the industry

  • Global carbon black demand is about 14 million tons a year, a market worth more than $20B.
  • About 4 billion tons of cement are produced each year, a vast outlet for affordable bulk carbon.

Fuel oil & diluent · 45%

High-aromatic oil, 85 to 95% aromatic content, plus a 200+ constituent solvent with naturally occurring d-limonene.

Use cases

  • Industrial heating
  • Marine and bunker fuel
  • Refining feedstock
  • Diluent blending

Size of the industry

  • The global fuel oil market is worth roughly $190B a year.
  • Marine shipping alone burns more than 300 million tons of bunker fuel a year.
  • The d-limonene solvent market alone is worth about half a billion dollars a year.

Process gas · 15%

Non-condensable gas captured during processing. It powers the TiPs unit and crumb drying in a closed loop.

Use cases

  • Powers the TiPs unit
  • Runs feedstock drying
  • Closed loop after startup
  • Zero external fuel

Size of the industry

  • Not sold: it replaces purchased fuel, so the plant runs with zero external fuel after startup.

Typical recovered output per ton of crumb rubber. Fractions vary with feedstock; each project is built on the assay of the actual feedstock.

The products

Three commodity-grade revenue streams.

Every TiPs output is a commercial-grade product, not a downgraded byproduct. On the tire side, the carbon black returns to tire manufacturing and the diluent reaches high-value solvent markets. The model is built on product value.

Carbon

Tread-grade N330 carbon black that goes back into tires, plus bulk industrial carbon for other markets.

  • Tires, belts, and rubber goods
  • Advanced concrete
  • Metallurgical carbon for steel
  • Soil and agriculture

Fuel oil & diluent

High-aromatic oil, 85 to 95% aromatic content. A 200+ constituent solvent with d-limonene.

  • Industrial heating
  • Marine and bunker fuel
  • Refining feedstock
  • Diluent blending

Process gas

Non-condensable gas captured during processing. It powers the TiPs unit and crumb drying.

  • Powers the TiPs unit
  • Runs feedstock drying
  • Closed loop after startup
  • Zero external fuel

Every fraction leaves as a product. Nothing is downgraded to a byproduct.

TiPs vs the incumbents

How TiPs compares

End-of-life tires have an incumbent disposal route. TiPs replaces all of them with material recovery instead of destruction.

TiPsPyrolysisTDF (tire-derived fuel)Landfill / stockpile
Process Sealed, low-temperature thermal mechanical depolymerization under vacuum.High-temperature thermochemical cracking, 400 to 800C.Whole or shredded tires burned as fuel in cement kilns and boilers.No processing. Whole or shredded tires buried or stockpiled.
Products Carbon, fuel oil, process gas, recovered solvent.Fuel oil, low-grade char, syngas.Heat only. The carbon and oil are lost to combustion.None. The material value is lost.
Material value Preserved and sold into product markets, including N330.Partially destroyed, lower-value byproducts.Destroyed in combustion.Stranded and lost.
Environmental Zero waste streams, no combustion in the process.Energy-intensive, char disposal issues.Stack emissions and ash. Displaces coal, but burns the material.Fire risk, leaching, and vector breeding.
Deployment Modular, distributed, on-site at the supply.Large centralized plants.Burned in existing kilns and power boilers.Permanent land use and long-term liability.
48 t/day Processed per unit on continuous feed at full scale.
TRL 8 Technology readiness proven across 10,000+ hours of full-scale operation.
Modular Units are added as feedstock and demand grow. No giant central plant required.

Take the full project with you.

SENS delivers waste-to-value solutions at scale. Whether you represent an investor, a manufacturer, a municipality, or a fund, we invite you to explore what TiPs can do with end-of-life tires in your region.

SENS · End-of-Life Tires Full project brochure, including the project economics (PDF)
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