Establishment and Evaluation of Energy Consumption, Carbon Emission, and Economic Models of Retreaded Tires Based on Life Cycle Theory

Abstract

This paper identifies the system composition of the life cycle of retreaded tires and constructs the energy consumption model, carbon emission model, and economic model of retreaded tires based on the life cycle theory. Moreover, the theoretical calculation model and method for the energy consumption, carbon emission, and economy at the production phase, transportation phase, usage phase, and reuse phase of retreaded tires are proposed. After that, this paper puts forward the energy substitution model, carbon reduction model, and cost profit model of five reuse methods of retreaded tires, namely, secondary retreading, mechanical pulverization, low-temperature pulverization, combustion decomposition, and combustion power generation. Finally, this paper proposes the evaluation index for the energy consumption, carbon emission, and economy in the life cycle of retreaded tires and quantitatively analyzes the energy consumption, carbon emission, and cost profit list in each phase of the life cycle of retreaded tires, obtaining the energy recovery rate, carbon reduction rate, and profit-to-cost ratio of the five reuse methods of retreaded tires. The main conclusions of this paper are as follows: the energy consumption and carbon emission of retreaded tires are the largest at the production phase, while the energy consumption and carbon emission are the lowest at the transportation phase. Among the five reuse methods, the energy recovery effect, carbon reduction rate, and economy of secondary retreading are the optimal ones, and the quantitative results show that retreading is the most effective way for the reuse of waste tires.