Preprint
Review

Feedstock Recycling of Rubber – A Review on Devulcanization Technologies

This version is not peer-reviewed.

Submitted:

20 January 2020

Posted:

21 January 2020

You are already at the latest version

A peer-reviewed article of this preprint also exists.

Abstract
Vulcanized Rubber, as elastomer, is difficult to recycle. Today, the main end of life routes of tyres and other rubber products are landfilling, incineration in e.g. cement plants, and grinding to a fine powder, with huge quantities lacking sustainable recycling of this valuable material. Devulcanization, i.e. the breaking up of sulfur bonds by chemical, thermo-physical or biological means, is a promising route that has been investigated for more than 50 years. This review article presents and update on the state-of-the art in rubber devulcanization. This review article addresses established devulcanization technologies and novel processes described in the scientific and patent literatures. It is expected that the public discussion of environmental impacts of thermoplastics will soon spill over to thermosets and elastomers. Therefore, the industry needs to develop and market solutions proactively. Tyre recycling through devulcanization has a huge lever, since approx. 30 million tons of tyres are discarded annually.
Keywords: 
;  ;  ;  ;  
Copyright: This open access article is published under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, which permit the free download, distribution, and reuse, provided that the author and preprint are cited in any reuse.

Downloads

1374

Views

515

Comments

0

Subscription

Notify me about updates to this article or when a peer-reviewed version is published.

Email

Prerpints.org logo

Preprints.org is a free preprint server supported by MDPI in Basel, Switzerland.

Subscribe

© 2025 MDPI (Basel, Switzerland) unless otherwise stated