Project Details
- Project Location
- Zhongxiang, Hubei, China (county-level city in central Hubei)
- Configuration
- Two XY-8-P batch-type horizontal rotary pyrolysis plants (waste tires)
- Combined Design Capacity
- 24 TPD (2 × 12 TPD)
- Feedstock
- Waste tires (whole or cut)
- Project Year
- 2018
- Original Project Status
- Delivered and commissioned in 2018; documented in Jinpeng's project records and photographs from the installation and commissioning period
- Current Operating Status
- Not independently verified
- Supplier
- Shangqiu Jinpeng Industrial Co., Ltd. (PYROJIN)
Introduction
The question that matters most to a first-time operator is not whether pyrolysis can process waste tires, but where a first plant should begin. The two-unit installation delivered and commissioned in Zhongxiang, Hubei in 2018 was sized as an entry: two batch reactors with a combined design capacity of 24 tonnes per day, a catchment one county-level city could plausibly supply, and a crew that could be counted on one hand. Small scale is often read as a limitation; here it reads as a discipline. Site preparation, storage, utilities, and daily labor all had to be economical at two units - and still leave room to grow by adding lines.
Project Background & Configuration Logic
Zhongxiang sits in central Hubei, a county-level city whose tire arisings come mainly from local trucking, agricultural machinery, and passenger vehicles - the diffuse, steady feedstock that suits a modest processing point rather than a regional hub. The configuration chosen was two XY-8-P batch-type horizontal rotary reactors, each sized for a design capacity of 12 TPD, giving a combined design capacity of 24 TPD.
The logic of two units rather than one larger reactor is straightforward for an entry-scale operator. Two lines share a single site, one crew, and one set of utilities, while allowing staggered batch scheduling: when one reactor is holding in the pyrolysis stage, the other can be loading or discharging, so labor and handling equipment are never idle nor overloaded. The configuration was designed so the plant could start with modest capital and a small team, with units added as feedstock volume and experience grow. Installation guidance and operator training were part of the delivery scope.
Site Preparation: What a Two-Unit Start Requires
A batch pyrolysis plant is heavy before it is complex. Each line of this class - the reactor shell in Q345R boiler steel, the drive system, the heating and treatment equipment - approaches a total plant weight on the order of 60 tonnes, and the installation area of a single line is roughly 35 m × 20 m. Site preparation therefore begins with level, load-bearing hardstanding and a foundation that anticipates the reactor's rotary motion and a full charge's weight.
For a two-unit site the practical demands are three-phase power for drives, blowers and auxiliaries; a dependable cooling-water supply for the condensation stage; and a layout that separates the process area from storage. Fire separation between tire stockpiles and the heating side, and bunded, segregated storage for liquid product, are part of the site discipline rather than an afterthought. A site prepared for two units - with space reserved on one side - is already prepared for a third.
Feedstock Intake and Storage
Batch plants of this type take whole or cut tires loaded in batches, which keeps the preparation step simple compared with crumb-based continuous lines. For an entry-scale operator, the practical work is intake planning: a collection radius the local catchment can sustain, delivery schedules that keep the buffer full without overflowing it, and segregation of arisings by tire type and condition.
Storage matters more at small scale than it appears to. A two-unit plant runs roughly two cycles per day across the site, so a buffer of several days' feed is enough to absorb delivery gaps - but it needs a defined, drained, and where possible covered area, kept apart from the process hall. Cut tires pack more densely and handle more easily than whole casings, easing both the storage footprint and the manual loading effort.
The Batch Cycle and a Two-Unit Schedule
The design cycle of the XY-8-P batch plant is on the order of 22-24 hours, typically split as about two hours of loading, four of preheating, ten of pyrolysis, four to six of cooling, and two of discharge. On a one-reactor site that rhythm leaves the crew alternately busy and waiting; on a two-unit site, the reactors are simply offset.
The scheduling logic is to keep the two cycles out of phase: while unit A sits in the long pyrolysis hold at stable temperature, unit B is being loaded, discharged, or cooled. This smooths demand for labor, cooling water, and product handling, keeping the small crew usefully occupied through most of the day rather than in bursts around each batch turnover. The staggered pattern also spreads the flue-gas treatment load across the two lines.
Daily Labor and Operating Discipline
A batch plant of this class is designed to run with one to two operators per line, so a two-unit site can be covered by a small team. The operator's work is scheduling and supervision rather than heavy handling: PLC-based control covers the temperature profile and the reactor's slow rotation (about 0.4 r/min), and the process runs at low pressure in a micro-negative, inert atmosphere, with the material heated indirectly, away from the flame.
What the small team must hold is discipline: batch turnover timing, temperature and pressure checks across the cycle, and records of what went into and came out of each batch. At entry scale, those records are also the basis for the next decision - whether the catchment justifies a third line.
Products and Their Handling
The recovered streams are pyrolysis oil (a fuel oil), recovered carbonaceous material, and steel wire, with non-condensable gas that may be returned to the heating system where the installed design and operating conditions permit. The pyrolysis oil is not diesel: reaching a diesel specification requires further distillation, refining, and testing, and at this scale the realistic destination is fuel use or sale to a downstream refiner.
The recovered carbonaceous material is not commercial-grade carbon black; it is a carbon-rich solid that can be stored, sold, or further processed only after testing. Steel wire is baled and sold as scrap. Liquid product goes to bunded tanks; solids need covered storage to limit dust and moisture pickup. Flue gas passes through the installed treatment system - a spray tower for alkaline neutralization followed by an adsorption tower for desulfurization and dedusting - designed so that emissions meet local requirements under proper operating conditions.
The Growth Path: Adding Lines
The defining feature of this entry configuration is that growth is an addition, not a rebuild. Jinpeng's batch plants can be linked in series, and a site that reserved space, utilities, and storage margin at the two-unit stage can take third and fourth units with limited new civil work. The crew grows gradually rather than in a step, and the staggered scheduling pattern extends naturally to three or four reactors.
For a small enterprise this staged path is the point of the model: it converts an uncertain first step into a measured one, keeping the cost of being wrong low. A two-unit site that runs cleanly and fills its storage is a working argument for a third line; one that struggles shows the problem early, at an investment level a small enterprise can absorb.
Project Photographs
Overall view of the two-unit batch pyrolysis site in Zhongxiang, Hubei, showing the reactor area and surrounding site layout. Photo taken during installation and commissioning in 2018.
Detail view of the feedstock loading arrangement at the Zhongxiang, Hubei installation. Photo taken during installation and commissioning in 2018.
Project Specifications
| Item | Project specification |
|---|---|
| Location | Zhongxiang, Hubei, China |
| Project year | 2018 |
| Status | Archive project - delivered and commissioned in 2018; current operating status not independently verified |
| Feedstock | Waste tires (whole or cut) |
| System | Batch-type horizontal rotary pyrolysis (XY-8-P) |
| Number of units | 2 |
| Capacity per unit | 12 TPD (design capacity) |
| Combined design capacity | 24 TPD |
| Production model | Batch, with staggered two-unit scheduling; units can be linked in series |
| Main recovered streams | Pyrolysis oil (fuel oil), 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 project's reference value lies in the completeness of the entry model. For a small enterprise evaluating its first pyrolysis plant, the Zhongxiang configuration shows what two units demand before the first batch: prepared ground, separated and drained storage, cooling water and power, and a scheduling habit that keeps a small crew productive across the day. It also shows what a two-unit site can return: a combined design capacity of 24 TPD that a county-scale catchment can plausibly feed, and a layout that converts future growth into the addition of identical lines rather than re-engineering.
Evaluators should watch three things: whether the site layout reserves margin for expansion, whether storage is separated and disciplined from day one, and whether the batch schedule and crew size match the catchment's intake. When those three line up, the two-unit model works as both a first step and a foundation.
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
Capacity figures are design values; actual throughput depends on feedstock characteristics and operating conditions. Yields and product properties - including the quality of the pyrolysis oil and the recovered carbonaceous material - require site-specific testing and are not guaranteed by this document. Energy use and emission performance depend on the installed auxiliary systems and on actual operation, and the final plant 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.