At a temperature above 700 8C, gas (20–30 wt%), oil (25–
35 wt%) with a high content of BTX aromatics and carbon black
(35–50 wt%) were yielded. The oil shows a high heating value of
about 40 MJ/kg and is therefore a good source for heating plants
[11]. Carbon black as the most valuable fraction can be reused after
activation with steam as filler material in the technical rubber
production [12].
Special polymers such as polymethylmethacrylate or polystyrene
can be degradated to high amounts of monomers [13]. There is
also an interest to study the monomer recovery by the pyrolysis of
especially natural rubber. Therefore, recycling technologies aimed
at the production of fuels or basic chemicals like BTX aromatics
(benzene, toluene, xylenes) from plastic and rubber wastes [13–
22].
The pyrolysis of elastomers of considerable annual production
volumes such as ethylene/propylene/diene terpolymers (EPDM)
[8], nitrile/butadiene-rubber (NBR) and polychloroprene-rubber
(CR) [23,24] in a fluidized bed reactor has already been
investigated and the main products have been thoroughly
characterized.
This paper deals with the pyrolysis of granulated tires from
trucks with a high content of natural rubber and pure natural
rubber at temperatures of 600 up to 650 8C in a fluidized bed
process to obtain high amounts of monomers like isobutene and
isoprene