Recovered carbon black producer Pyrolyx A.G. built the pyrolysis plant near Terre Haute, Ind., from 2017-19, but idled the plant in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.

BOULDER, Colo.— U.S. waste tire recycler Bolder Industries Inc. has acquired an idled Pyrolyx USA scrap-tire-processing plant in Indiana that will help Bolder accelerate bringing its "sustainable" carbon black product to market.

Boulder-based Bolder said it plans retrofit the 66,000-sq.-ft. site, which has been idled since March 2020, with proprietary technology, for which it's budgeting $40 million. The plant is expected to be fully operational by early 2023.

Terms of the transaction were not immediately known.

Recovered carbon black (rCB) producer Pyrolyx A.G. built the pyrolysis plant near Terre Haute, Ind., from 2017-19, but then had to idle the unit in early 2020 under COVID-19 pandemic restrictions imposed by the state of Indiana.

The plant was rated by Pyrolyx — which since has filed for bankruptcy — with a processing capacity of nearly 13,000 metric tons of carbon black, which translates to about 4 million tires recycled a year.

The plant is expected to create about 40 jobs in western Indiana, and capacity is estimated to increase three-fold for Bolder when production begins — diverting about 3 million tires from landfills or burning.

"As a native Hoosier, it's incredibly rewarding to come back to my home state and revive a great concept and facility," Bolder Industries CEO Tony Wibbeler said.

"The Terre Haute facility is in an excellent location and has great elements that complement our proprietary technology and process. This purchase enables us to expand our capacity to meet current customer demand now and provides for future growth."

Founded in 2011, Bolder Industries has developed and scaled a proprietary process that it claims recovers 98% of scrap tires by extracting high-quality petroleum-based ingredients and steel. It uses the recovered petroleum to produce BolderBlack, a more sustainable alternative to virgin carbon black that sells for less than virgin black.

Bolder claims its process uses 90% less water and emits 90% less greenhouse gas than comparable recovery technologies.

The acquisition is the latest in a series of moves Bolder Industries has made to accelerate its business model..

In November it struck a deal with Liberty Tire Recycling Inc. for Liberty to supply it with up to 60 million scrapped tires annually as feedstock for its carbon black recovery process. The deal is for 10 years.

And in November 2020, Bolder and carbon black supplier Continental Carbon Co. disclosed plans to work together to commercialize the production of "sustainable" carbon black products for the rubber and plastics industries.

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