Europe's largest end-of-life tyre recycling plant is already up and running in Puertollano (Ciudad Real). As Invest In Spain announced in December 2019, Irish company Life for Tyres (L4T) has invested 33 million euros in constructing modern facilities where 27,000 tonnes of waste tyres per year will be processed, saving the equivalent of over 52,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.

The L4T plant not only stands out for its size, but also because it is the most technologically advanced in the industry throughout the whole continent. Using a depolymerisation process, the facility will convert end-of-life tyres into high-quality products, such as feedstocks for advanced biofuels, circular depolymerisation oil, Recovered Carbon Black, scrap metal and synthesis gas. The first two products above have obtained International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC).

Patented technology
The plant's main asset is its patented state-of-the-art technology developed by L4T together with the Curti Group, and protected by five patents. Its implementation is the result of over ten years' research, industrial testing and operational improvements aimed at creating new recycling opportunities in the tyre industry. The result is a circular solution that makes waste tyres profitable, until now one of the most worrying waste products from global industry.

Commencing operations has resulted in 38 jobs being created, following a construction phase during which over 150 direct jobs and over 100 indirect jobs were created. The company chose Puertollano because it is one of the main industrial and energy centres in Spain, with rail access for regional and international distribution, and it has also become one of Spain's new green technology centres.

Public support
During the investment process, Invest in Spain advised on how the L4T project could be implemented in Spain. In addition to this support, several subsidies have been granted, such as 6.8 million euros from the Regional Incentives Programme, 3.6 million from the Institute for Just Transition for productive investment projects, 2.4 million from Sepides (Business Finance Agency) and 1.4 million in guarantees from the Institute of Finance for Castille-La Mancha.

This first plant will serve as a model that the company will replicate at new sites to accelerate the development of its project portfolio, with the aim of operating at least eight facilities by 2026 and becoming a world leader in tyre recycling. In fact, L4T has already started the engineering phase for its second plant in Guardo (Palencia) and the third in Yaguachi (Ecuador), which will be followed by others in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia.

The inauguration (as shown in the photo) was attended by the CEO of the Life for Tyres Group, Tilen Milicevic, the Minister for Territorial Policy and Government Spokesperson, Isabel Rodríguez, the President of Castille-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, the autonomous community's Minister for Economy, Business and Employment, Patricia Franco, the Minister for Sustainable Development, José Luis Escudero, and the Mayor of Puertollano, Adolfo Muñiz Lorenzo.

^{Photo: Life For Tyres}