Co.'s link up to produce industrial biofuel

Posted Dec. 29, 2010

Hunt Global Resources Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tombstone Technologies Inc., along with its BioSolutions Division, have launched an exclusive research and development project with Vancouver, British Colombia-based tire recycling firm Carbon Green Inc. to jointly produce a diesel substitute for a variety of industrial applications.

Currently, Carbon Green owns and operates a tire recycling facility in Limasol, Cyprus, that's capable of processing 8,000 metric tons (approximately 800,000 tires) of tires annually. The company said it's ready to roll out similar production facilities across North America. That's where Hunt Global Resources comes in, according to Jim Blackman, spokesman for Tombstone Technologies. According to its website, Carbon Green's goal is to bring production capacity up to more than 145,000 metric tons of tires by the end of 2014.

At its commercial-scale plant in Cyprus, Carbon Green can convert the byproducts of tire pyrolysis into recovered steel, a No. 2 diesel equivalent oil that can also be employed to generate clean electricity, a European accredited and accepted substitute for carbon black trademarked Carbon Green, and a clean-burning gas that can be used to provide power to the company's processing plant or sold for carbon credits.

Hunt Global Resources owns and operates a 44 MMgy industrial biofuels facility located near the Houston Ship Channel. At the facility, Hunt Global Resources produces a similar diesel substitute called LoNOX from nonfood-based cellulosic sources. Its LoNOX product has a range of applications such as boiler fuel, heating oil, marine fuel and other stationary diesel and off-road uses.

Hunt Global Resources intends to integrate its industrial biofuel process technology into a future Carbon Green tire recycling facility, according to Blackman, where Hunt's biofuel is expected to be blended with Carbon Green's existing tire-derived fuel. The newly-developed fuel formulation, according to Blackman, will meet or exceed new U.S. EPA mandates for industrial and marine diesel emissions, set to launch in 2011. Target markets include the marine industry and heating oil users, according to Blackman.

"What [Hunt Global] is going to be able to do is double or triple the output of oil at each Carbon Green tire recycling facility," Blackman said. "Right now, Carbon Green produces nominal amounts of oil from the tires, but once Hunt's technology is integrated that output volume would increase."