Keyword: Materials
Technology: TreadCycle is designing a scalable process to convert waste tires into battery-grade hard carbon, a versatile alternative to graphite for lithium-ion and emerging sodium-ion batteries, using treatment methods intended to integrate into existing recycling pathways.
Problem being addressed: More than 280 million tires are discarded annually in the United States, creating a persistent waste management challenge with limited circular reuse and potential environmental harm. At the same time, global battery demand is rapidly increasing, placing pressure on supply chains for key materials such as graphite. This convergence creates both a significant environmental burden and a growing need for sustainable, domestically sourced battery materials.
Lessons learned through Customer Discovery: The team believed that tire recyclers widely relied on both mechanical grinding and pyrolysis in the United States to process end-of-life tires and generate value.
Through interviews with recyclers and industry stakeholders, the team found that while mechanical processing is common domestically, much of the pyrolysis activity is outsourced to India because of lower costs and less stringent environmental regulations.
This creates a more complex commercialization challenge: the team now needs to determine whether its process can work within India-based pyrolysis pathways or whether there is a viable pathway to bring environmentally responsible pyrolysis capacity back to the United States
Team members:
- Anna Hallac, Master’s Student at Penn Engineering
- Chiara Bruzzi , Penn Engineering alumni with B.Sc and Master’s in Materials Science and Engineering, currently PhD Student in Environment Engineering at Columbia
IP: In development
Lead inventors: Anna Hallac and Chiara Bruzzi