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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[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.

Fort Lauderdale says no

[Anonymous Coward]

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

like tires as reef?

[Speare]

There was a case where someone had the bright idea of dumping tires over a huge area of open sea, to offer marine habitat. Years and years later, the barnacles and coral organisms haven't adopted this habitat, because the tide keeps pushing the tires around, unlike heavier debris. It's an eco-disaster, worse than nothing, essentially.

They're finally getting around to hauling them up, but volunteer effort can only go after a few tires at a time, with tens of thousands or millions of tires to go. Maybe if there was a clear use for all the tires, they could get some funds to lift the old "reef" up and use it for a different, and this time beneficial, marine-related purpose.

Re:Ew

[AchilleTalon]

Does it imply it tastes better with new tires?

What about rubber allergies?

[jimlintott]

My first concern is that I am quite allergic to cyclohexylthiophthalimide (CTP) a chemical used in vulcanizing rubber. Yes, I am allergic to car tires. Makes me very, very ill. While I don't get sick in normal traffic I get sick at the drag races from the burnouts and I can't spend more than 30 minutes in a tire shop.

Whether water filtered through tires would bother me or not I don't know but it should be checked into first.

Re:What about rubber allergies?

[diersing]

There we go again, caving to the cyclohexylthiopthalimide-phobic lobby. Honestly people, this here tire-filtration system is the best thing we got going, are we really going to abandon it for something that affects 10%^H^H^H 1% ^H, this guy?

Re:What about rubber allergies?

[cmckosaurous]

Yeah, I can see it now:

Deer Park marketing guy #1: "Nobody is actually allergic to this kind of stuff, right?"

Deer Park marketing guy #2: "Well, there was this one guy on Slashdot who claimed he was, but I bet it was just a lie."

Deer Park marketing guy #1: "We should put a warning label on our bottles just to make sure he doesn't sue us. How about - 'Warning, this delicious and refreshing drink you are about to enjoy may contain water filtered using Recycled Tires, and may contain traces of cyclohexylthiophthalimide. If you are that one guy who is allergic to CTP, do not enjoy this beverage.'

Deer Park marketing guy #2 "Brilliant! High five!"

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?

Duh!

[Naughty Bob]

That's *why* we chuck them in the river....

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.

Don't hold your breath

[geobeck]

From the last part of the article (for those who don't RTFA):

The suggestion is interesting and plausible, says Sean Moran, an environmental engineer who runs Expertise Limited in the UK. "But I can see there being a lot of difficulties taking it from lab stage to full scale," he adds.

He points out that there are already filtering columns which maintain their size gradient even after backwashing by exploiting the density differences. These use large, low density particles of anthracite, on top of sand, with small, high density particles of garnet at the bottom.

Another problem in cleaning filtering systems is that sewage sludge sticks to the filter particles. Moran thinks the sludge is more likely to stick to rubber than to smooth hard grains of sand and coal.

He is also concerned that the rubber from old tyres might leach out toxic chemicals including heavy metals. Xie's team is now taking feedback from experts, and running tests to make sure the rubber does not leach out heavy metals.

I, for one, do not welcome our contaminant-leaching, sewage adsorbing overlords.

So THAT's how they do it...

[Nefarious Wheel]

That just totally explains the taste of tap water in Adelaide.

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.