Rubber reborn: McMaster startup converts tire waste into sustainable solutions

“A McMaster startup is turning old rubber tires into new materials used in construction, reducing waste and carbon emissions along the way. Neopara Materials has created a reinforcing filler ingredient made with ground-up tires that can be converted into silicone, polyurethane and epoxy resin products like sealants, coatings and adhesives. “Our whole business is upvaluing rubber crumb, which is a widely available form of waste, and coating it with ingredients that enable the material to be remade into something new,” says Neopara chief scientific officer Mike Brook, a professor emeritus of Chemistry whose four decades of silicon chemistry research at McMaster has formed the basis for this green initiative. In 2020, the McMaster researchers discovered a novel way to break down and dissolve the rubber used in tires that would extract the petroleum-based polymers from which the tires are made and enable them to be repurposed. The first real test of this technology has been facilitated through a partnership with Hyundai Canada by transforming old tires into brand new, sustainable hockey pucks, with rubber crumb provided at no cost by the Brantford-based company CRM of Canada. Once they coat the surface of that rubber crumb with their “patent pending” ingredient, the crumb is able to maintain its structure while replacing silicone, polyurethane or epoxy in a variety of applications. “What Neopara’s solution does is it turns the rubber crumb into a material that doesn’t know it’s not a silicone or a polyurethane,” says Brook. “That’s really the magic.” It’s a process that results in fewer tires piling up in landfills and massively reduces the carbon footprint of manufacturing products like silicone, cutting roughly 35 per cent of the carbon dioxide emissions — up to 8 kilograms — associated with every kilogram of silicone. It’s a made-in-Canada solution to a global problem, Brook says, noting about one billion tires are manufactured every year, and disused tires often end up in landfills, leaching toxic compounds into soil and groundwater. A relatively small amount of Neopara’s coating ingredient can transform rubber crumb from tire waste into other materials, which makes it easier to ship around the world for sustainable solutions. “We’re leveraging waste that’s already been created wherever those tires are and providing manufacturers with the material and the process to coat the crumb, and then it can be used in construction that’s local to where that waste was located in the first place.” Pucks are just the beginning, says Brook, noting that this chemical process has the potential to be a gamechanger in the $9 billion silicone construction industry. Neopara is already working with several companies to create sustainable solutions in areas like roof repair and curtain walls systems in building construction, and also in automotive, but he says the potential applications are limitless. The post Rubber reborn: McMaster startup converts tire waste into sustainable solutions appeared first on McMaster News .

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