How Does a Tire Rubber Granule Recycling System Balance Cost and Value in Waste Tire Processing?

Author : marie | Last Updated : November 19, 2025

A deep dive into the full-process technology, core technical parameters, and diverse application scenarios of tire rubber granule recycling systems—revealing how they balance processing costs and product value to become a cost-effective mid-tier solution for waste tire resource utilization.

Of the annual global waste tire processing volume, approximately 60% is converted into rubber granules (2–8mm particle size). Compared to fine rubber powder, they offer the dual advantages of “30% lower processing costs + broader application scenarios”; compared to coarse rubber blocks, they boast “higher purity + stronger adaptability.” Focused on this mid-tier market, tire rubber granule recycling systems use a process chain of “graded shredding + precise sorting + standardized granulation” to achieve an industrial balance: “processing costs ≤ ¥180/ton + product purity ≥ 99.5% + annual capacity up to 50,000 tons.” They serve as a core hub connecting “coarse waste tire processing” and “high-end material deep processing.” This article breaks down the industrial logic of this cost-effective system across four dimensions: system technology, technical characteristics, application scenarios, and industrial positioning.

I. Full-Process Technology of Tire Rubber Granule Recycling Systems: Precise Value Conversion for the Mid-Tier Market

The core of a tire rubber granule recycling system is a mid-tier focused chain of “low-cost shredding + high-efficiency sorting + standardized granulation”. Its process avoids the high energy consumption of fine grinding while solving the low purity of coarse processing, consisting of 5 core stages:

Low-Cost Pretreatment: Cost-Reduction Preprocessing via Bead Separation

Mechanical Hydraulic Bead Cutting Unit: Uses low-cost hydraulically driven blades (instead of servo systems). Cutting parameters are manually preset based on tire specifications (operation time ≤ 1 minute/tire), with bead wire separation error controlled within 1mm. Wires are simultaneously conveyed to a metal recovery bin.
Bulk Loading Unit: Enables bulk loading (≤50 tires per batch) via belt conveyors, paired with simple screening plates to filter surface debris (e.g., stones, metal shards) from tires. The unit energy consumption for pretreatment is only 60% of that of automated systems.

Graded Shredding: Low-Cost Size Reduction from Tires to Coarse Blocks

This stage is the “cost-reduction core” of the system, using a two-stage mechanical shredding unit cluster to reduce material volume incrementally, balancing processing efficiency and equipment investment:

Primary Mechanical Shredder: Uses a “shear-type shredding chamber” (instead of roller milling) with a 75kW motor. It shreds whole tires into 8–15cm coarse blocks at a capacity of 15 tons/hour, with equipment procurement costs only 40% of intelligent shredders.
Secondary Jaw Shredding Unit: Reduces coarse blocks to 3–10cm pieces via jaw plate compression, equipped with a spring buffer system to adapt to tires of varying hardness (truck/construction tires). A vibrating screen filters out 3–8cm qualified blocks; unqualified material is recycled for secondary shredding.

High-Efficiency Multi-Phase Sorting: Core Stage for Purity Assurance

The system uses a combined sorting unit to achieve “high-purity separation” with low-cost equipment, avoiding purity shortcomings in mid-tier products:

Drum Magnetic Separation Unit: Uses a permanent magnet drum (magnetic field strength ≥ 1.2T) with a belt speed of 1.0–1.5m/s to separate steel impurities from rubber blocks, achieving a separation rate ≥ 99.2%. Equipment energy consumption is only 50% of electromagnetic sorting.
Airflow Sorting Unit: Uses a fixed air speed of 10–12m/s to separate nylon fibers from rubber blocks (separation efficiency ≥ 98%). Collected fibers are reused as building material fillers, enabling “full resource recovery.”
Manual Reinspection Station: 1–2 manual reinspection positions (visual screening only) are set up post-sorting to stabilize final product purity at ≥ 99.5%, while avoiding the high equipment costs of fully automated sorting.

Standardized Granulation: Specification Setting for Mid-Tier Products

This is the key stage determining rubber granule adaptability, using a dual-roller granulation unit to achieve standardized particle size output:

Adjustable-Gap Granulator: Roller gaps are manually adjustable (±0.2mm precision) within 2–8mm to produce granules of different specifications (2mm for fillers, 4mm for modified asphalt, 6mm for rubber floor tiles) based on downstream demand.
Constant-Temperature Cooling Unit: After granulation, granules are cooled to room temperature (≤ 30°C) via air cooling to prevent rubber aging from high temperatures. A vibrating screen classifies particles by size, ensuring batch-to-batch particle size deviation ≤ 0.5mm.

Finished Product Post-Processing: Final Stage for Low-Cost Scaling

Semi-Automatic Packaging Unit: Uses a weighing packaging machine (error ≤ 100g) paired with manual palletizing (instead of AGVs), achieving a packaging efficiency of 5 tons/hour. Equipment costs are only 25% of automated packaging systems.
Dust Collection Unit: Uses a baghouse dust collector (dust emissions ≤ 10mg/m³) to meet industrial environmental standards, with equipment investment only 60% of pulse dust collectors.

II. Technical Characteristics of Tire Rubber Granule Recycling Systems: Precise Adaptation to the Mid-Tier Market

Compared to high-end automated systems and low-end coarse processing equipment, the core advantage of tire rubber granule recycling systems is a mid-tier balance of “cost-efficiency-purity”, summarized in 3 key characteristics:

Low-Cost Balance in Equipment Investment

The equipment procurement cost for a single production line is approximately ¥2–3 million (only 1/3 of automated systems). Core equipment (shredders, granulators) has 100% domestic localization, with maintenance costs ≤ ¥50,000/year.
Energy consumption is controlled at 150kWh/ton (25% lower than fine rubber powder systems). Key stages (shredding, sorting) use “mechanical drive + manual adjustment” instead of intelligent control to further reduce operating costs.

Mid-Tier Stability in Product Quality

Rubber granule purity is stably ≥ 99.5% with particle size deviation ≤ 0.5mm, meeting quality requirements for mid-tier application scenarios.
Rubber granule Mooney viscosity fluctuation is ≤ 5 (80% lower than coarse rubber blocks), with an elasticity retention rate ≥ 85%. They can be directly adapted to most mid-tier processing scenarios without secondary treatment.

Flexible Adaptation in Production Capacity Scale

A single production line has a daily capacity of 20–30 tons and an annual capacity of 50,000–80,000 tons, adapting to county-level waste tire processing needs.
The system uses modular design; capacity can be increased to 50 tons/day by adding shredding/granulation units, meeting large-scale processing needs for prefecture-level regions.

III. Diverse Application Scenarios of Tire Rubber Granule Recycling Systems: Broad Mid-Tier Value Implementation

With “moderate cost + strong adaptability,” tire rubber granules have become a “cost-effective raw material” for multiple industries. Core application scenarios include 4 categories:

Modified Asphalt: Primary Raw Material for Infrastructure

4–6mm rubber granules are the core raw material for rubber-modified asphalt:

Added at a ratio of 15–20%, they improve asphalt’s low-temperature crack resistance by 30% and high-temperature stability by 25%, adapting to road construction in northern China’s low-temperature regions and southern China’s high-temperature regions.
Compared to fine rubber powder, rubber granules have 20% lower procurement costs and are easier to mix. They have become the preferred raw material for domestic mid-sized and small asphalt manufacturers, with annual demand exceeding 1 million tons.

Rubber Building Materials: Large-Scale Application in Civil Fields

2–4mm rubber granules are the core filler for rubber floor tiles and sports surfaces:

For rubber floor tiles: They can replace 30% of virgin rubber, reducing tile costs by 25% while improving elasticity and slip resistance, adapting to parks, residential walkways, etc.
For sports surfaces: As a base layer filler for plastic runways, they reduce raw material costs by 30% and have 90% of the wear resistance of virgin rubber fillers. Domestic annual application volume exceeds 500,000 tons.

Industrial Fillers: Low-Cost Substitutes for Manufacturing

6–8mm rubber granules can be used as fillers for plastics, coatings, and sealants:

Replacing 10–15% of plastic raw materials reduces product costs by 10% while improving impact resistance, adapting to injection-molded products such as trash bins and pallets.
As a functional filler for coatings, they improve slip resistance and weather resistance, adapting to outdoor anti-corrosion coating scenarios. Annual application volume exceeds 300,000 tons.

Recycled Rubber Raw Materials: Precursor Materials for High-End Processing

Tire rubber granules can serve as raw materials for recycled rubber deep processing:

Converted to recycled rubber (80% of virgin rubber performance) via desulfurization, they are used to produce tire sidewalls, conveyor belts, etc.
Compared to coarse rubber blocks, rubber granules reduce desulfurization time by 20% and energy consumption by 15%, becoming a “cost-reduction raw material” for recycled rubber manufacturers.

IV. Industrial Positioning of Tire Rubber Granule Recycling Systems: Core Hub of the Mid-Tier Market

In the waste tire resource utilization industrial chain, tire rubber granule recycling systems play a “connecting” core role:

Undertaking Front-End Coarse Processing: Solving the Conversion Pain Point of “Low-Value Coarse Materials”
Traditional coarse waste tire processing only produces “low-purity coarse rubber blocks” (value ≤ ¥800/ton), while tire rubber granule recycling systems convert them into “high-purity rubber granules” (value ≥ ¥1,200/ton). This increases the economic value of front-end processing and promotes the construction of county-level waste tire recycling networks.
Linking Back-End Deep Processing: Reducing Raw Material Costs for “High-End Materials”
Processing high-end fine rubber powder or recycled rubber directly from whole tires incurs high costs; using rubber granules as raw materials shortens processing processes by 30% and reduces costs by 20%. They serve as “low-cost precursor materials” for high-end deep processing, driving full-chain cost reduction in waste tire resource utilization.
Filling the Mid-Tier Market Gap: Meeting “Cost-Effective” Industrial Demand
The mid-tier market has strong demand for “moderately priced + stable quality” rubber raw materials (e.g., mid-sized/small asphalt manufacturers, civil building material enterprises). Traditional processing models are either “high-cost (fine rubber powder)” or “low-quality (coarse rubber blocks)”—tire rubber granule recycling systems fill this gap as the “main supply solution” for the mid-tier market.

V. Industry Trends: Upgrade Directions for Tire Rubber Granule Recycling Systems

Current tire rubber granule recycling systems are evolving toward “low-cost intelligence”, with core trends including:

Semi-Automation Upgrade: Introduce simple automated equipment (e.g., pneumatic sorting valves, semi-automatic palletizers) in sorting and packaging stages. With a cost increase ≤ 10%, labor demand can be reduced by 50%.
Diversified Product Specifications: Improve granulator gap adjustment precision (±0.1mm) to produce granules in 1–10mm sizes, adapting to more application scenarios.
Elevated Environmental Standards: Upgrade dust and noise reduction equipment to achieve dust emissions ≤ 5mg/m³ and noise ≤ 70dB, meeting stricter regional environmental requirements.

Tire rubber granule recycling systems are not “simplified versions of high-end technology”—they are precise solutions tailored to mid-tier market demand. Centered on “low-cost technology + high-purity products + broad-adaptation scenarios,” they balance processing costs and economic value, becoming the “most widely used, cost-effective” mid-tier hub in the waste tire resource utilization industry. As county-level waste tire recycling networks accelerate construction and mid-tier rubber raw material demand continues to grow in China, this system will become the core driver of waste tire resource utilization in “sinking markets”—while providing industry participants with a “low-investment, stable-return” implementation option.