Tyre Pyrolysis Oil: Can You Really Put It in Your Car?

If you have ever watched a tyre pyrolysis machine at work, it is easy to see why people get excited. A massive reactor swallows whole truck tyres—those black, steel-belted behemoths that are notoriously difficult to recycle—and through intense heat and oxygen-free conditions, transforms them into something that looks and smells remarkably like crude oil.

The question visitors almost always ask next is the same: “Can I put this in my car?”

The short answer, frustratingly simple, is no. Absolutely not.

But the long answer—the one about chemistry, refineries, and the future of waste—is far more interesting.

What Actually Comes Out of a Tyre Pyrolysis Machine? To understand why tyre pyrolysis oil (TPO) cannot fuel your commute, you first need to understand what it actually is. When waste tyres are fed into a tyre pyrolysis machine, the high heat breaks the long polymer chains of rubber into shorter hydrocarbon chains. The vapour that rises from this process is condensed into a dark, viscous liquid.

This liquid is often referred to as “tyre oil,” but a more accurate term is “crude tyre oil.” It is the waste plastic equivalent of the black sludge pumped out of the ground in Saudi Arabia or Texas. It is unrefined, unstable, and chemically chaotic.

Here is what a typical batch from a tyre pyrolysis machine contains:

A wide range of hydrocarbons: From light fractions similar to gasoline all the way to heavy, tarry residues.

Sulfur: Tyres are vulcanized with sulfur during manufacturing. Much of that sulfur ends up in the oil, making it highly corrosive and foul-smelling.

Nitrogen and chlorine compounds: These create acids when burned.

Solid particulates: Carbon black and ash from the process contaminate the liquid.

High aromatic content: Including concerning levels of benzene and other cyclic compounds.

This is not fuel; it is a chemical soup. Pouring this into a modern car engine would be an act of mechanical cruelty. Within minutes, the sulfur would attack the catalytic converter, the solids would clog the fuel injectors, and the inconsistent combustion would likely destroy the pistons.

The Industrial Reality: Fuel for Factories, Not Cars So, if tyre pyrolysis oil cannot go in a car, where does it go?

Today, the vast majority of TPO is sold as industrial burner fuel. It is used in massive furnaces—think cement kilns, steel mills, brick factories, and industrial boilers. These facilities are equipped with robust burners and filtration systems designed to handle low-grade, “dirty” fuels. For them, tyre oil is a cheaper alternative to coal or heavy fuel oil.

This application, while not glamorous, solves a genuine waste problem. It diverts millions of tyres from landfills and open burning, replacing fossil fuels with a waste-derived energy source. For many small-to-medium tyre pyrolysis machine operators, this is the only economically viable market.

The Refinery Dream: Upgrading to Engine-Ready Fuel But what if you could turn old tyres into diesel for trucks and generators? The technology exists—it is just not simple.

Turning crude tyre oil into something resembling automotive fuel requires a second-stage process called hydrotreating or hydrodesulfurization. This is the same technology used in conventional oil refineries to clean crude oil.

The process involves:

Distillation: First, the crude tyre oil is heated in a fractionating column to separate it into different boiling-point cuts—naphtha, diesel, and heavy residue.

High-Pressure Hydrogenation: The diesel cut is then mixed with high-pressure hydrogen gas and passed over a catalyst. The hydrogen reacts with the sulfur to form hydrogen sulfide gas (which is removed), and saturates unstable molecules to improve combustion.

Catalytic Cracking: For lighter fuels like gasoline, the heavy molecules may need to be cracked further.

This is not something you can do in a warehouse with a tyre pyrolysis machine. It requires a fully-fledged refinery, complete with hydrogen plants, high-pressure reactors, and extensive safety systems. The capital cost runs into the hundreds of millions.

The Niche Solution: Small-Scale Distillation Between the raw tyre oil and the full-scale refinery lies a middle ground. Some operators use simple distillation units to process tyre pyrolysis oil into what they call “tyre diesel” or “furnace oil.”

This process is essentially a sophisticated pot still. It heats the oil and collects fractions that condense at specific temperatures. The resulting liquid is cleaner and more consistent than raw TPO. It can be used in low-speed diesel engines (like those in heavy generators or agricultural pumps) or sold as industrial fuel.

However, it is important to be honest about what this is. Even distilled tyre oil rarely meets the stringent national standards for automotive diesel (like EN590 or ASTM D975). The sulfur content remains too high, and the cetane number is often too low. It is an “industrial grade” fuel, not a “road grade” fuel.

The Verdict: Waste Management, Not Magic A tyre pyrolysis machine is not a magic wand that turns rubbish into race fuel. It is a sophisticated piece of waste processing equipment. Its primary value lies in its ability to handle a difficult, problematic waste stream and convert it into something useful—even if that “something” is just a low-grade oil for industrial burning.

For the circular economy to function, we must be honest about these limitations. Overselling tyre pyrolysis oil as a direct substitute for petrol or diesel risks creating false expectations and, worse, encouraging the use of dirty, untreated fuel in inappropriate engines.

The future of tyre pyrolysis lies not in backyard biofuel schemes, but in integration. If the petrochemical industry can build refineries capable of accepting tyre oil as a co-feedstock alongside crude oil, then the true value of those waste tyres might finally be unlocked. Until then, that dark liquid from your tyre pyrolysis machine belongs in a cement kiln—not your tank.