Questions and Answers
...to your most frequently asked questions.
 |
Has anyone in North America been given a permit to burn whole tires? |
There are two prominent facilities that have been granted permits to burn whole tires; one is in California, the other is in Connecticut. Both of these facilities burn whole scrap tires to produce electricity. Since California has some of the most stringent criteria around, it's interesting to see that scrap tire combustion can meet the toughest requirements in the nation.
|
Will you be producing lots of black smoke? |
Not at all. The black smoke is formed by unburned carbon and particles of incomplete combustion that are prominent in uncontrolled conditions, like burning tires in an open field. In contrast, our process burns the tires thoroughly in a patented furnace especially designed for the job.
|
Won't the whole neighborhood smell like burning rubber? |
We've taken every precaution to keep odors to a minimum by trapping fugitive emissions and employing state-of-the-art pollution and process control / monitoring equipment.
|
What happens to the wire in the tires? |
In a conventional boiler, the wire get tangled up in the grates and blocks airflow to the combustion chamber. In contrast, the wire is burned in the Clean Energy Tire Furnace until all that remains are bits of ferric oxide. This material is non-hazardous, inert ash.
|
What kinds of tires will you be burning? How fast? |
We can accommodate any kind of tire and scrap rubber. The tire furnace was designed to burn 40 lbs of tires per minute; that's 2 passenger tires per minute, or one highway truck tire every 72 seconds.
|
How much bottom ash will you produce? Is it hazardous? |
One passenger tire will yield one pound of ash. One highway truck tire will yield 7 lbs. of ash. The bottom ash is not hazardous.
|
How will you monitor what you will be sending into the air? |
We will be using Continuous Emissions Monitors (CEM's) in order to monitor what exits the stack. We've been consulting with a professional engineer that specializes in this field from the inception of the project. This was an important step for us in that it helps us remain in compliance with clean air standards and air compliance considerations.
|
Will there be piles of tires laying everywhere, waiting to be burned? |
No! Tires will be stored in neat rows of enclosed trailers. One trailer can hold 1200 passenger tires and the tire furnace consumes 2-1/2 trailers of tires per day.
|
What are you doing along the lines of fire prevention? |
The National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) has published standards for storing tires. Rather than storing the tires in the open, we will be storing them in closed trailers. This measure allows us to keep the fire lines open and establishes physical fire barriers that go beyond the requirements set forth by the NFPA.
NFPA 231D Standard for Storage of Rubber Tires 1998 Edition.
|
Has anyone ever done any studies on scrap tires? |
Yes. Please call us for further details or refer to;
United States Environmental Protection Agency. "Air Emissions from Scrap Tire Combustion." Rancho Cordova, CA: Prepared by Joel I. Reisman for E. H. Pechan & Associates, 1997.