SRI has been featured in the September / October edition of The European Rubber Journal.
In this issue, David Shaw’s report asks the important question, “Why is recycled rubber not used in tyres?”
The European Rubber Journal is the world’s leading publication specialising in the rubber industry in Europe.
Magazine copies and back issues are available for purchase here
SRI’s CEO, Gopinath B. Sekhar was recently interviewed by Tyre Asia Magazine. The February / March issue will be also distributed at the Tire Tech Expo 2011 in Cologne, Germany.
The devulcanizing technology that Sekhar Research Innovations (SRI) has developed, for which it won the 2010 Asia Pacific Technology Innovation Award for Tire Recycling Technology by international consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, is set to change the way end-of-life tyres are perceived and managed. SRI CEO Gopinath B Sekhar says the compound created by his firm’s cleantech process, which uses very little energy, can be utilised to make new tyres, retread old ones and make automotive parts. This will be particularly economically at a time when natural rubber prices have
gone through the roof.With automobile industry booming in China and India, tyre production in the world’s most populous countries is growing very fast with China already topping the list as the world’s largest producer. Along with this, comes the problem of environment-friendly disposal of end-of-life tyres. In this context, SRI’s tyre recycling is a viable green option for emerging economies.
“India has a long history of recycling which predates the terms of ‘cleantech’ and ‘green’. China in particular has shown a capacity for rapid adoption of all things green, with 1/4 of their energy requirements now being supplied by clean energy,” Sekhar noted.
The need for the recycling of scrap tyres in a responsible and appropriate manner is no longer just a necessity but it is now an imperative, he emphasised.The already substantial automotive markets of north America and Europe are now being joined and even surpassed by Asia where these industries are on explosive growth. “Existing systems to manage the volumes of scrap generated are going to be outstripped very quickly leaving a path of unacceptable environmental damage in its wake,” he warned. “When I refer to the imperative, I’m not referring to lip service or peripheral low volume applications, but the imperative is for a process that can keep up with the volume of scrap generated.”
Continue reading full article in pdf format.
SRI has been featured in The Star, Malaysia’s largest newspaper.
In 2004, Sekhar Research Innovations (SRI) was founded by local rubber technology legend, the late Tan Sri Dr B.C. Sekhar. When he passed on in 2006, his son, Gopinath B. Sekhar took over the company, focusing on developing a process that enables the reuse of materials from scrap tyres.
The breakthrough for SRI came after five years of endeavour when they successfully created the “SRI compound”. Recycled from tyres and waste rubber, the compound can be used to make new tyres, retread old ones or make automotive parts.
The process of creating the compound begins with cutting and grinding up scrap tyres into crumb rubber. The crumb rubber is then put through the SRI Activation Process to create premium rubber which can be used in a range of products once it is mixed in with the manufacturer’s virgin compound.
Sekhar uses the analogy of cake baking to describe the process: “A scrap tyre is like a baked cake. Eggs, flour, sugar and other ingredients are used to make the cake batter. Once baked, it is impossible to turn the cake back into batter because the properties of the ingredients have changed.
“It is the same in rubber product manufacturing where natural rubber, synthetic rubber, carbon black, chemicals and sulphur are mixed together into a compound. The compound is put in a mould and the mould is heated up for a specified amount of time at a specified temperature to vulcanise it into a finished product. This finished product material cannot be reverted back to the compound it initially was.”
But what if there is a method to convert the cake into batter? This method is what the people at SRI have developed.
Continue reading at TheStar online
Today, over half the recovered end of life tires in the World are incinerated in low end and unhealthy applications like TDF (tire derived fuel). The argument for burning tires has been that no alternative exists that can consume the huge volume of waste tires generated yearly. Technology has now caught up with the scrap tire problem, effectively ending the need to burn this valuable raw material as low grade fuel. Thank you to Discovery Channel for featuring SRI as a leading tire recycling company with the potential to address this solid waste issue with technology and innovation.
..processing an old tire back into a new one remains extremely difficult. The production process alters the materials’ properties, making them hard to reclaim. So far, tire recycling hasn’t been able to produce significant amounts of affordable, high-performance compounds. Sekhar Research Innovations (SRI) is a startup based in the Malaysian city Petaling Jaya. They say their patent-pending technological process can devulcanize rubber from whole scrap tires, creating a compound that can be used to make new tires, retread old ones, and make automotive parts.The technology can work at high volumes and requires very little energy, says SRI.. “Ours is the first closed-loop rubber recycling solution that can match the volume requirements of rubber manufacturing.”
This fall, consulting firm Frost and Sullivan gave the company a technology innovation of the year award for their tire recycling process. “Large-scale implementation of SRI’s recycling technology could ultimately lead to greener, ecofriendly cars on our roads,” the firm stated. Currently the company is in the process of commercializing its process and plans to open a production facility in Malaysia.
Sekhar Research Innovations (SRI) has been awarded the 2010 Asia Pacific Technology Innovation Award for Tire Recycling Technology by Frost & Sullivan. SRI received the Asia Pacific award in recognition of its performance against key competitors in terms of uniqueness of technology, impact on new products/applications, functionality, customer value and the relevance of SRI’s innovation to the tire recycling industry.
Frost & Sullivan’s Technology Innovation of the Year Award is bestowed upon a company that has carried out new research, which has resulted in the development of a specific innovative technology that has or is expected to bring significant contributions to the industry in terms of adoption, change, and competitive posture. This award recognizes the quality and depth of a company’s research and development program as well as the vision and risk-taking that enabled it to undertake such an endeavor.
SRI is honored to receive this prestigious award. We thank Frost & Sullivan for recognizing the disruptive potential of our technology and its significance as a milestone in the Asia Pacific cleantech industry.
PDF of notification from Frost & Sullivan to SRI
Sekhar Research Innovations CEO, Gopinath B. Sekhar
See coverage on Bernama, New Straits Times, The Edge, and European Rubber Journal
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SEKHAR RESEARCH INNOVATIONS ANNOUNCES THE WORLD’S
FIRST COMMERCIALLY VIABLE TIRE RECYCLING TECHNOLOGY
Malaysian company makes landmark ‘disruptive clean technology’ announcement for rubber compound production; Announces plans for global expansion
12 May 2010, KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA: SEKHAR RESEARCH INNOVATIONS SDN BHD (“SRI”), a leading developer of cleantech solutions for tire recycling technologies, today announced the world’s first commercially viable recycling solution that addresses the problem of scrap tires globally.
SRI is focused on making a difference with a viable solution that is cost effective, volume based, value added and compatible with existing rubber manufacturing equipment and processes.
“SRI’s technology will fundamentally change the landscape of rubber manufacturing and tire waste management, as we know it today. For the first time scrap tire material can be utilized in substantial proportions in the manufacture of premium rubber goods, such as tires,” said Gopinath B. Sekhar, Chief Executive Officer, Sekhar Research Innovations Sdn Bhd.
Globally, there are in excess of 1 billion tires produced yearly, valued at more than USD 130 billion. These very same tires, when they reach end of life, pose a global public health and solid waste management problem. Across Europe and United States the majority are burnt for fuel (“TDF”) or used in roads and similar low-end applications. In Asia, end of life tires (“ELT”) routinely disposed of in landfills or irresponsible manner that has a negative impact on the health and the environment of the surrounding communities.
“For lack of an alternative, these low end and toxic practices have been wrongly accepted as sound solid waste management. By products of burning tires for fuel include harmful emissions and contamination of fresh water sources,” said Sekhar. “What we have today is a solution that makes these end of life tires a valuable industrial raw material for premium rubber products such as new and retread tires. This is good for the environment, the economy and the consumer!”
A 100% Malaysian company, SRI has been developing its proprietary solutions since 2006, having invested more than RM 3 million to date. The proprietary SRI Activation Technology has successfully produced compounds that are currently being tested and evaluated by leading global tire manufacturers. Locally, SRI is involved in ongoing evaluations and road testing trials with the Rubber Research Institute of Malaysia.
SRI Compound Masterbatch (MB) is derived from the recycling of scrap tire rubber that has been devulcanized and converted into raw material rubber compound. The primary input material for our process is 40 mesh (less than 0.42mm) crumb rubber from ordinary whole car and truck tires.
In two months, SRI will produce 50 metric tons of SRI Compound Masterbatch per month at our present test facility located in Malaysia.
This initial production will be targeted towards the retread tire and general rubber goods market, and is expected to generate revenues in excess of RM 2 million per annum.
“In the meantime we are finalizing sites for a full size production facility in Port Klang which is expected to be operational by the end of this year. This plant will produce approximately 20,000 metric tons of SRI Compound Masterbatch annually and represents an investment of RM 35 million. This facility, targeting the demands of Malaysia and ASEAN markets, will generate revenues in excess of RM 80 million per annum,” said Sekhar.
As part of SRI’s global expansion strategy, it has a licensee in the United States for the eventual production of SRI Compound Masterbatch. Similar agreements are underway in Europe and Asia.
“Tire manufacturing is a demanding and highly competitive industry and any savings in raw material costs – even one percent – is a significant gain. What we are offering here is a solution that provides a savings of between four to eight percent in terms of raw material cost. Given that profit margins in the industry are uniformly less than 10 percent, this has the potential to double profits!” Sekhar said.
For more information on Sekhar Research Innovations Sdn Bhd and SRI Compound Masterbatch please visit www.srielastomers.com.
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ABOUT SEKHAR RESEARCH INNOVATIONS (“SRI”)
SRI is a research and development cleantech company focused on providing solutions to the growing challenge posed by the need to recycle tires. It is currently using its Activation Process to produce next generation rubber recycling solutions in the form of SRI Compound Masterbatch and SRI Activation Technology, processing aids and advanced state-of-the-art equipment for the global market.
For enquiries:
Anthony Umann
Sekhar Research Innovations
t: +6.03.7957.6777 / +6.012.6174.050
e: anthony@srielastomers.com
This video shows another example of the SRI post activation process.
The significance here is that recycled content, converted to compound in the form of SRI Compound Masterbatch, has been successfully used to replace virgin rubber compound in this application (retread) in proportions of up to 20% without any appreciable loss in properties or performance. This directly translates to immediate raw material savings of between 5% to 7% and potentially substantial consumption in a high volume, highly competitive application.
The full report is available as PDF here
SRI is today introducing The SRI Activation System. For the first time ever, an industrial Cleantech process exists that can address the challenge of volume processing for the global tire recycling industry in a viable, cost effective and environmentally friendly manner. This video features a full scale SRI Activated Compound production batch that was run at a size of 250 kilograms . This represents commercial scale production capability on a modular level. Since then, SRI having cleared the laboratory and testing phase and moved to the commercialization of our process has successfully tested the process at its optimum operating capacity of 350kg per batch allowing for a production capacity of more than 1 metric ton per hour per activator.
SRI’s proprietary machine effectively devulcanizes 40 mesh tire crumb in a mechano chemical process. The system allows for a batch size in excess of 250kg with a very low energy footprint, low heat signature and a process time of under 20 minutes per batch. Having achieved this milestone, production will begin shortly in both Malaysia and the USA with the equipment being shipped this month.
Light truck tires manufactured using SRI Compound Masterbatch have successfully cleared the 5,000 km mark under normal commercial road conditions while carrying maximum payload. Reaching this very significant benchmark means that from this point forward the evaluation process will be identical to that of a normal production tire. SRI has achieved an industry first as no other comparable material has previously qualified at this level. These road test results show very similar wear patterns even down to axel related variations and have thus far cleared the evaluation process without issue. Having crossed the 10,000 km threshold, we await official measurement results and will be publishing them in due course.
Click the image above to download the full results
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