The increase in rubber waste production due to rapid industrialization and especially the growth in automotive industry is one of the most important challenges in waste management of 21th century. Because of their network structure, natural degradation of rubber wastes lasts too long. Besides, the reuse/recycle of waste rubber without any pre-treatment is impossible. Therefore, the number of the studies about the reuse/recycle of waste tires has accelerated in recent years. Studies focus on waste tire rubbers because 70% of the rubber produced in the world is being used in tire industry. Many new methods were developed for reuse/recycle of waste tire rubber. One of the methods developed is bio-devulcanization, which attracts attention because of its low energy requirement, selectively breakage of S bonds without main chain scission and being an environmentally friendly method. 

The purpose of this study is to investigate, the bio-desulfurization ability of different seed / sludge sources, which might involve Thiobacillus denitrificans and Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans, and the effect of waste tire rubber particle size on bio-desulfurization efficiency. Following the comparison of different seed sources and particle size effect, there will be a scale-up experiment by which physical properties of bio-devulcanized rubber will be investigated. It is believed that bio-devulcanization will have an industrial scale application in the near future and results of this study might be useful for developing this technology.  

By: Tercan Çataklı

Advisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tuba Hande Ergüder Bayramoğlu

Date: 17.04.2019