Recycled Tires Could Filter Water

MattSparkes writes "According to New Scientist, water could be cleansed and filtered more easily and cheaply by using old tires. From the article: 'Rubber tires, the kind that lie at the bottom of rivers and at the back of junkyards the world over, could be ideal water filters says an environmental engineer at Penn State University in the US.'"

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More Information

[eldavojohn]

Here's a picture of the process that Yuefeng Xie set up at PSU.

Note that on his homepage under news he has "A patent "Method of Using Waste Tires As A Filter Media" was issued to me on November 29, 2005. With 40% of royalties to the inventor (other 60% goes to Penn State), I am going to be a rich professor very soon."

Which reveals he applied for this patent on Aug. 26, 1999.

A lot of the material I can find online makes it look as though he's been working on this for six years, he was just waiting for the patent to to be granted. It seems now they just have to verify tha the water that is processed doesn't leach out any harmful toxins or heavy metals (as the article states). A side note is that he only has one other patent aside from this one.

Despite his plans to become rich over this, I hope he is very successful as a lot of countries (both 3rd and 1st world) could stand to benefit from this greatly.

Other Uses

[quanminoan]

Waste tires can be recycled and used in lots of ways, though this one is particularly interesting. Tires actually have a fuel value and energy density greater than coal, and the slag left over can be used in construction materials and concrete. The crumb rubber the article mentions is actually somewhat difficult to take out of the tire, you generally cryogenically freeze the tire then hammer at it - this separates the crumb rubber from the fibers within the tire. The recycled rubber isn't the kind of rubber you'd use in everyday life without treatment, so it's used in things like rubber mats and in highway construction.

Crumb rubber has found uses in sewage plants as a filler material to bulk up the sewage, replacing the tons of wood chips that would normally have to be discarded. In places with erosion problems burying tires make excellent barriers combined with terracing techniques. There have also been programs to make artificial reefs with tires, making great fish habitats (if done properly that is). I read an article on using the 2" chips as mulch for blueberry plants. Some companies are playing with pyrolysis as well - getting a good deal of oil from the tires by heating them under an oxygen free and high pressure environment.

There's really no limit to what you can do with waste tires. If this method works well I'm sure some countries could benefit, though I don't know how well the filters work. I can't imagine them removing arsenic or bacteria, but possibly they could condition the water so that a better filter could last longer? The article was a little vague on details - anyone provide some insight to this end?

Re:Other Uses

[JonathanR]

Car tyres are used in cement clinker manufacuture. At a plant I did some work at, they have a conveyor that drops whole tyres into the top end of the rotary clinker kiln. The steel belts and beads in the tyres contribute to the iron requirements of the clinker, and of course the rubber is burned for fuel value.

Re:like tires as reef?

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.nova.edu/ocean/tire_reef_washpost.html

Re:How old are they talking, here?

[Alien Being]

"they stopped making tires out of rubber"

Tires (almost all) are made of synthetic rubber and have been for many decades.

Rubberized asphalt is wonderful

[Sycraft-fu]

We use it in Arizona, though not at much as we should, and it's awesome. Even if there weren't the benefits of getting rid of old tires it's still great stuff. It offers a much quieter ride but the real winner is that it deals with thermal expansion real well. The desert has massive temperature deltas, it can be 70 degrees in a day or more, every day. Because of that and the extreme heat, roads wear out fast. However the rubberized asphalt stands up to it quite well.