Table of contents

• Executive Summary
• Summary
• The Products
• Manufacturing
• The Market
• Financing Required
• IP Protection & Legal Issues
• Patent
• USP Innovation Agency
• Lawyer and Accountant
• Pilot Plant
• Business Model
• A circular economy approach
• Target Market
• Customer Discovery
• Evaluation
• Funding & Implementation

Playgrounds, carpets and boots, although creative, together they do not represent not even 1% of scrap tire destination. [1] Every year, over 1 billion tires are manufactured all over the world which is equivalent a (equivalente a 100 milhoes de pessoas em peso). After approximately 3 years, these tires are discarded and new tires are produced, generating a huge amount of scrap tire accumulation. If stored above ground they may create fire hazards, harborage for pests, and aesthetic and property value impacts. However, when waste tires are buried, they consume valuable landfill space.[2] To properly address this residue, many countries, such as United States and Brazil, passed a law designates to tire manufactures to collect and manage the solid residue. [3] Unfortunately, major destination is incineration to generate tire-derived fuel (TFD) broadly used in cement industry for energy. [4] This process generates chemicals proven to be extremely detrimental to human health and environment. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons dioxins, carbon monoxide and sulfur oxides are some examples of carcinogens and toxic released compounds. [5] Specially in Brazil, seventy percent of collected tire is directed to incineration and the other thirty percent are reintroduced in limited markets. In this scenario, our project aim to make up the residue demand through a synthetic biology technology capable of transforming a waste into a high valued product to feed others chemical segments and as a final main product, a clean and sustainable jet-fuel.

Using a wild microorganism isolated from soil, the first step is to remove the sulfur bonds that covers the tire with no pollutant gases emission, generating a more flexible and easy to recycle material. In the second step, we designed an optimized bacterial DNA based system specific for polyisoprene degradation, the main tire component. It is capable of breaking long chains into smaller units that can be used as raw material for other processes. In our third reactor will be performed a single catalytic reaction to produce the jet-fuel. We also intend to use natural rubber from Hevea brasiliensis as renewable source for our fuel production. The remaining products with economic value of the whole process are: high quality raw material to input other industrial segment, jet fuel derived from tire waste, jet fuel derived from natural rubber and devulcanized rubber from tires.

[1] Rubber Manufacturers Association, 2014.
[2] Legislative Environmental Policy Office Study Conducted - Status of and Alternatives for the Management of Waste Tires in Montana, 1998.
[3] Environmental Protection Agency- State Scrap Tire Programs, a quick reference guide, United States, 1993.
[4] United States Environmental Protection Agency - Tire-Derived Fuel, 2005.
[5] Saleh Tawfik A., Gupta VK, Processing Methods - Characteristics and Adsorption Behavior of Tires Derived Carbons: A Review, Advances in Colloid and Interface Science, 2014.