Alternative Fuels >
Scrap Tyres
Scrap tyres have the same high-energy value as coal and have been used as a cement-making fuel worldwide for the last twelve years. (Click here to view the places worldwide which use tyres as a cement-making fuel).

By using scrap tyres we:

  • Improve the overall environmental performance of the Cement Works
  • Help solve the UK's scrap tyre disposal problem
  • Are preserving non renewable fossil fuels for future generations
  • Improve our competitive position by reducing high energy costs.
Scrap Tyres
The UK and European governments both acknowledge the use of scrap tyres in cement manufacture as "a valuable recovery route" and "an economically attractive substitute for traditional fuels" from Making Waste Work - Report 1996 (Government White Paper).

In the UK over 40 million tyres are removed from vehicles every year. The disposal of these tyres is a major problem which grew in scale in 2003 when whole tyres were banned from being disposed of in landfill sites. In 2006 chipped tyres will also be banned from this waste disposal route.

A cement kiln is ideally suited to using tyres as fuel. The tyres, either whole or chipped, are burnt at temperatures in excess of 1,000°C which is hotter than molten volcanic lava.

This ensures:

  • Complete destruction of the rubber and cotton content of the tyre
  • No black smoke
  • No smell
  • Overall reduction in emissions
  • The metal content of the tyre is incorporated into the cement clinker.

In its report, "Tyres in the Environment", the Environment Agency sets out the scale and implications of the growing tyre disposal problem in the UK:

"One of the main disposal routes for tyres may well be about to cease. A proposed European Union Directive on landfill will ban the disposal of whole tyres to landfill by about 2003 and shredded tyres by 2006. More reuse, material recycling and energy recovery options are needed."

The Agency also outlined the characteristics which make cement kilns suitable for energy recovery from tyres:

"Temperatures in excess of 1,400°C are required to produce the cement clinker. The following characteristics make cement kilns suitable for burning tyres:

  • High temperature
  • Long residence time
  • Oxidising atmosphere
  • High thermal inertia
  • Alkaline environment
  • No ash residue
  • Continuous fuel requirement"

Lafarge Cement works are only allowed to use an alternative fuel if trials, authorised by the local regulator - Environment Agency in England and Wales; Scottish Environmental Protection Agency in Scotland; and the Industrial Pollution & Radiochemical Inspectorate in Northern Ireland - show using it causes no overall increase in environmental emissions.

The trials involve extensive gathering of emissions data for a specified period using traditional fuels to establish baseline data against which results from a period using the alternative fuel can be assessed.
Sapphire Energy Recovery, the market leader in the recovery of scrap tyres, is a joint venture between Lafarge Cement UK and Michelin Tyres. It now processes over 100,000 tyres each year for use as a fuel in cement kilns. You can find out more about its services by visiting: www.sapphirerecovery.co.uk