The rubber compounding arm of the HEXPOL Group has announced an investment in a devulcanization line in Europe. This allows it to offer in-house mechanical devulcanization of rubber and supports the transition to a circular economy.  

For years, HEXPOL Compounding has worked with cured compound scrap and waste, unavoidable byproducts of rubber part production. In the past, converters paid to dispose of their rubber waste, which often ended up in landfills or was incinerated. In some cases, rubber waste was ground and reused, but until now, it has been mainly used as a filler in low-quality applications. Devulcanization offers an opportunity to keep these valuable resources in circulation and reduce the demand for virgin materials, thus decreasing the amount of unused waste.  

Devulcanization can transform cured rubber parts back into an uncured state. The devulcanized material still contains the polymer, carbon black or other fillers and plasticiser of the original compound. This provides a raw material base for producing new rubber parts and shows that rubber can be recycled.  

Carsten Rüter, President of  HEXPOL Rubber Compounding Europe & Asia, explains:

HEXPOL´s target is to reprocess cured rubber from post-industrial sources and reuse it for typical rubber applications in the automotive or building and construction industry.

Instead of paying for disposal, we support our customers in transforming their rubber production offcuts into a new raw material with a reduced product carbon footprint.

The devulcanization process adds no additional chemicals. It uses only mechanical forces like shear, compression, and temperature to break down the crosslinking bonds in cured rubber with the help of a specific extruder.  

The investment will enable HEXPOL Compounding in Europe to produce several thousand tons of compounds with devulcanized rubber content per year.  

Ralph Wolkener, President HEXPOL Compounding Europe & Asia, commented:

We are proud to offer a variety of compound solutions with recycled content already today. Soon, we will add rubber recycling to our services. Our customers are becoming our business partners in this process, which involves collecting and  sorting their production side products until HEXPOL transforms them into devulcanized raw materials again.

He adds:

We believe our devulcanization process could also be extended to post-consumer rubber recycling”.  

The new extruder will be installed at the HEXPOL Compounding site in the Czech Republic by the end of 2024, where it will provide devulcanization services to other European HEXPOL Compounding sites as well, ensuring a broad customer base can join the circle.  

Norbert Niemand, Managing Director at HEXPOL Lesina, adds:

It is part of HEXPOL’s service to adjust compound recipes based on devulcanized rubber and other renewable raw materials to achieve the same performance as compounds based on standard raw materials.

Original announcement: HEXPOL
Image: Courtesy of HEXPOL
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