Project Details
- Project Location
- Yulin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, southern China
- Configuration
- Two XY-8-P/PB batch-type horizontal rotary pyrolysis units, 12 TPD design capacity each
- Combined Design Capacity
- 24 TPD (2 × 12 TPD, batch operation)
- Feedstock
- Waste tires (whole or cut, batch-loaded)
- Project Year
- 2019
- Original Project Status
- Delivered and commissioned in 2019. Installation guidance and operator training were part of the delivery scope.
- Current Operating Status
- Not independently verified.
- Supplier
- Shangqiu Jinpeng Industrial Co., Ltd. (PYROJIN)
The Climate Is Part of the Configuration
Most descriptions of a waste-tire pyrolysis plant start at the reactor drum. In a subtropical climate like Yulin's, the more demanding engineering sits outside it: in the condenser, which must liquefy a hot vapor stream against cooling water that is itself warm, and in the storage areas, which must protect hot, porous solids from air that is rarely dry. The two-unit batch plant delivered to Mr. Liang in Yulin in 2019 is an archive example of that climate-driven logic - modest scale and a configuration designed around the seasons rather than against them.
Project Background & Configuration Logic
Yulin lies in southeastern Guangxi, in a subtropical monsoon zone: hot, humid summers, high relative humidity through much of the year, and short, mild winters. For a tire pyrolysis site, the practical consequences are simple to state and hard to ignore: cooling water in the warm season is warm, outdoor air holds a great deal of moisture, and any material left uncovered gains water quickly. The region's vehicle and agricultural-machinery base generates a steady stream of end-of-life tires, which gives a two-unit batch plant a realistic catchment - enough feedstock to keep two 12 TPD reactors occupied without demanding a large collection network.
The configuration was designed around that environment. Two batch units give a combined design capacity of 24 TPD, a deliberate balance at this scale: enough throughput to justify site development and a small operating team, small enough that feedstock intake and product dispatch stay manageable, and structured so additional lines could follow the same pattern as the catchment grows. Because batch plants load whole or cut tires directly, the site avoids the crumb-preparation step associated with continuous lines - simpler intake, balanced against a defined batch cycle. The design questions that follow - warm-season condensation, moisture load, and storage discipline - are the substance of this project's configuration.
Core Technology & Production Analysis
Condensation in the Warm Season: Sizing Against a Warm Coolant
Pyrolysis oil recovery depends on the temperature difference between the reactor's hot vapor stream and the cooling medium, and that difference shrinks in a warm climate. In a subtropical summer, cooling water drawn from wells or local sources can sit more than ten degrees above its winter value, while evaporative cooling towers are limited by the wet-bulb temperature of humid air. The design logic is to size condenser heat-exchange area and cooling-water flow against the warm-season coolant temperature rather than an annual average; margin at the hot end of the year is what keeps the vapor condensing. Under-condensed vapor does not disappear - it travels into the gas-handling line and complicates everything downstream.
Moisture in the Vapor Stream: Water as a Design Input
Tires stored outdoors in a humid climate carry surface moisture into the reactor. In the batch cycle that water vaporizes during heating and joins the pyrolysis vapor stream as steam, condensing later as a separate water phase that must be separated from the oil. Water-oil separation and handling of the separated water are therefore routine parts of the warm-climate layout - not an afterthought, but a design input driven by the feedstock's moisture history. The non-condensable gas stream, which may be returned to the heating system where the installed design and operating conditions permit, carries some of the same moisture; knock-out and settling arrangements in the gas line belong to the same logic.
Product Storage Under Heat and Humidity
The three recovered streams respond differently to a warm, humid site. Pyrolysis oil stays fluid in warm weather, which eases transfer, but a storage tank that cools at night breathes in humid air, and that air can condense water into the oil; venting, drying, and routine water draw-off are the storage-side answers. Recovered carbonaceous material leaves the reactor hot and is porous: in humid air it picks up moisture quickly, and warm, piled solids oxidize slowly, so the design logic is to cool it before storage and keep it covered. Steel wire rusts fast in humid air, and covered storage protects its value as a recovered scrap stream.
Two-Unit Scheduling in Warm Weather
The batch cycle - loading, preheat, pyrolysis, cooling, discharge - runs roughly 22 to 24 hours, and the cooling phase is the climate-sensitive part: at 30 °C ambient, a hot reactor sheds heat far more slowly than it would in a northern winter. Two units make the schedule a resource. While one reactor is in the hot pyrolysis phase, the other can be cooling, being unloaded, or being reloaded; staggered cycles spread the demand for cooling water, gas, and labor across the day, keeping utility peaks flatter than a single large reactor's would be. This is the scheduling logic that keeps a two-unit batch site manageable with a small team.
Flue-Gas Treatment in Moist Air
The plant includes a flue-gas treatment train - spray tower followed by adsorption tower - designed to meet applicable local emission requirements under proper operating conditions. In a humid climate, warm, moisture-laden flue gas changes how such systems are operated and maintained, a point a warm-climate site must build into its routine.
Photo 1
Overall view of the two-unit batch waste-tire pyrolysis plant in Yulin, Guangxi, showing both 12 TPD reactors and the shared utility area. Photo taken during installation and commissioning in 2019.
Photo 2
Process detail of the vapor condensation and product collection area at the Yulin plant. Photo taken during installation and commissioning in 2019.
Project Specifications
| Item | Project specification |
|---|---|
| Location | Yulin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China |
| Project year | 2019 |
| Status | Historical archive project - delivered and commissioned in 2019; current operating status not independently verified |
| Feedstock | Waste tires (whole or cut, batch-loaded) |
| System | Batch-type horizontal rotary pyrolysis, indirect heating, micro-negative pressure |
| Number of units | 2 |
| Capacity per unit | 12 TPD (design capacity) |
| Combined design capacity | 24 TPD (2 × 12 TPD, batch) |
| Production model | Defined batch cycle (loading, preheat, pyrolysis, cooling, discharge), staggered across two units |
| Main recovered streams | Pyrolysis oil (fuel-oil fraction), recovered carbonaceous material, steel wire; non-condensable gas may be returned to the heating system where the installed design and operating conditions permit |
| Supplier | Shangqiu Jinpeng Industrial Co., Ltd. (PYROJIN) |
What the Project Demonstrates
This archive project shows that a modest two-unit batch plant can be configured around a warm, humid climate rather than merely sited in one. The demonstrated capability is design judgment: condenser and cooling-water margin for warm-season coolant temperatures, moisture management through the vapor and gas lines, and storage discipline for oil, solids, and steel under year-round humidity. For clients in tropical and subtropical regions, the reference value is direct: the same 24 TPD batch scale, the same tire feedstock, and the same climate-driven questions this 2019 Yulin configuration addressed. Evaluators comparing configurations should watch the warm-season numbers: hottest-month cooling-water temperature, achievable cooling-tower approach, and whether the storage of recovered carbonaceous material is covered and dry. Those details, more than the reactor drum, separate a warm-climate configuration from a generic one.
About Jinpeng
Shangqiu Jinpeng Industrial Co., Ltd. designs and manufactures batch, semi-continuous, and continuous pyrolysis plants, oil distillation systems, and supporting equipment for waste tires, waste plastics, oil sludge, rubber-derived materials, and other suitable carbon-rich feedstocks. Project configuration is developed around material characteristics, production objectives, site conditions, and applicable local requirements. For project discussions, visit www.pyrolysis-machine.com.
Disclaimer and Archive Note
Disclaimer. Capacity figures in this retrospective are design values. Actual throughput depends on feedstock condition and operating practice. Yields and product properties vary with tire type, moisture, and process conditions and must be confirmed by testing at the site. Energy use and emissions performance depend on the installed auxiliary systems and on actual operation, and any final design must comply with applicable local regulations.
Archive Note. This retrospective is based on Jinpeng's project records and photographs from the original delivery and commissioning period. It describes the documented project configuration and does not constitute verification of the plant's current operating status.