FREUDENBERG, Germany — HF Mixing Group G.m.b.H. has established a partnership with and invested in WF Recycle-Tech, a British machinery company with a patented pyrolysis system for recycling end-of-life tires.
The deal for WF Recycle-Tech, announced in February and completed recently, combines that company's pyrolysis technology with HF Mixing's continuous mixing, engineering and equipment manufacturing capabilities.
HF Mixing, of Freudenberg, made the investment through its Ansonia, Conn.-based Farrel Pomini subsidiary. Terms were not disclosed.
Camberley, England-based WF Recycle-Tech started operations in 2013 to develop a continuous "thermo-dynamic" approach to handle used tires. The company said an operational prototype is complete and work is moving toward commercialization of production machinery.
"We feel it brings significant advantages to the group with the opportunity to utilize the patented system or it outputs," HF Mixing Group Co-CEO Ian Wilson said.
"As a global supplier of equipment to the tire and technical rubber industries, these innovations will help drive the closing of the tire recycling loop and improve sustainability across several of our business sectors and lead to more environmentally neutral solutions,"
WF Recycle-Tech's process, using heat in the absence of oxygen, transforms crumb rubber into oil, gas and recovered carbon black. WF Recycle-Tech has created a continuous process, as opposed to batch operations, to transform tires back into raw materials.
