A SMALL town in western NSW is attracting interest from across Australia and around the globe as ground-breaking technology turns old car and truck tyres into saleable commodities of oil, carbon and steel.
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Melbourne-based company Green Distillation Technologies (GDT) established an enterprise at Warren because process inventor Denis Randall had an association with the district.
"We could have gone anywhere," GDT chief operating officer Trevor Bayley said.
"Denis wanted Warren so that is where things started. In the beginning the locals may have seen an opportunity to get some revenue from a bunch of Wallys from the big smoke.
"The idea of turning end-of-life tyres into something useful seemed strange. But the idea worked and GDT is now well regarded, locally, nationally and internationally."
Mr Bayley said Mr Randall was a scientist who had spent 35 years studying and experimenting with organic waste systems.
"His main interest was in agricultural waste, including wheat stubble, straw and cotton trash," Mr Bayley said.
"We introduced the idea of using car, truck and large-scale mining tyres."
The Warren processing operation began in 2009 with a prototype "box on a table".
In December 2012 construction started on a commercial plant located on a block of land on the Oxley Highway, five kilometres from the town.
The plant became operational in 2013.
"There is no building," Mr Bayley said.
"The plant is a fully enclosed 12-metre square steel structure that stands 15 metres high. Inside there are two processing tubes that are heated by an oil burner.
"Tyres are lifted into a loading chamber and a chemical reaction causes their atomic structure to be destroyed.
"Carbon and hydrogen atoms combine and are extracted as vapour that is condensed into oil.
"When the process stops hot carbon and steel are ejected."
Mr Bayley said the steel was to be returned to tyre manufactures for use in new tyres, providing a significant saving over the price of new steel.
The carbon could be used in steel recycling or in products as diverse as brake pads, water filters, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and soil enhancement.
Two per cent of the oil produced by the Warren plant would be used as the heat source for the production process.
The remainder would be transported to Wagga for refining for use in Australian military vehicles.
Mr Bayley said tyres had been processed at the plant but it was still in a commissioning stage while Environment Protection Authority regulations were worked through.
The company was waiting to get the green light for full production.
Mr Bayley said old tyres had been a blight on the environment for more than a century because there had been no means of "effective and profitable" recycling.
"Grinding up old tyres to make crumbs or flakes is not a true means of recycling because the rubber has not been changed," he said.
"There is a limit to how much of this material can be used in playgrounds and sporting fields. Concerns have also been expressed that the material is not completely safe."
Mr Bayley said Australia used 25 million tyres annually and GDT planned to establish a series of processing plants once the Warren site was well established.
"Our plan is to produce eight million litres of oil at Warren each year by processing 20,000 tonnes of tyres," he said.
"The plant would create 15 full-time jobs plus contractors and visitors. We are receiving interest from all around the world because no one else is processing tyres in this way."
Last year GDT became Australia's first ever nominee in the Edison awards, the world's top competition for innovation.
The company was awarded a bronze medal.