Life Cycle Energy Analysis and Evaluation of Retreaded Engineering Tires

In this paper, energy consumption models of retreaded engineering tires were constructed based on life cycle analysis, theoretical calculation model, and energy consumption method during the four stages of retreaded engineering tires, i.e., production, transportation, usage, and recycling stage. The energy substitute model and energy evaluation index during the recycling stage, which involves one of five classical retreaded engineering tire recycling methods, i.e., secondary retreading, mechanical smash, low-temperature smash, combustion decomposition, and combustion power generation, were presented. Life cycle energy analysis of retreaded engineering tires was conducted, and the energy consumption during the different life cycle stages was quantitatively analyzed, thus obtaining the energy restoration rate of the five classical recycling stages of retreaded engineering tires. Energy consumption analysis and energy evaluation at different stages were performed. Main conclusions indicate that the energy consumption during the production stage is the highest, and energy consumption during the transportation stage is the lowest. The energy recycling result of the secondary retreading or combustion decomposition of retreaded engineering tires is obtained.