There is a great need for batteries: batteries from waste? Start-up wants to win “black gold” for electric cars from old car tires

Video source: n-tv.de

To date, car tires have hardly been recycled in a meaningful way; in Germany alone, around six hundred thousand tons of old tires end up in the trash every year. A start-up from Chile has essentially reinvented the wheel and is turning worn-out wheels into new parts for electric car batteries.

Process converts car tires

Three products are obtained. One is pyrolytic oil, the other is steel and the third is black soot. There is no market for the soot, so the Chilean start-up has converted tire waste into a graphitic material that can be used in batteries for electric mobility. Because the soot is nothing other than pure carbon and is an important component of accumulators and batteries, explains Bernadita Diaz, managing director of T-Phite.