BORRACHA 2.0 – Project kick-off

The replacement of fossil fuels with waste-derived fuels (WDF) is one of the fastest-growing areas in the energy recovery sector, especially when recycling is no longer feasible - either because the products have reached the end of their life cycle or because of the complexity of the materials they are made of.

Flows such as mixed plastics, end-of-life textiles and footwear, paper and cardboard utilities, packaging with aluminium foil, non-recyclable fractions of tyres or furniture wood are already being transformed into alternative fuels for use in cement kilns.

But why not also flows from the rubber industry?

Given that AVE – Gestão Ambiental e Valorização Energética (Environmental Management and Energy Recovery) ensures the supply of waste to produce alternative fuels used in the kilns of the six cement plants in mainland Portugal, JCConsulting has entered into a technical collaboration with this entity to test the applicability of rubber waste in this process.

Laboratory tests were then carried out on different types of rubber waste to determine its suitability for energy and material recovery processes. This work made it possible to establish a recovery protocol that enabled the cement industry to use certain types of rubber waste as raw material and alternative fuel, representing a significant advance over landfill disposal.

The tests also showed that fluorinated and chlorinated waste would need to be excluded due to its chemical composition - but the path forward was clearly defined.

BORRACHA 2.0 project symbolises the transition from disposal to regeneration - a bridge between environmental responsibility and industrial innovation, towards a more intelligent use of resources and a truly circular economy for rubber.