Abstract
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has been chosen for thermal plasma treatment using a plasma torch attached to plasma reactor, with flow rate of air 10-30 mg/s and mean temperature of the plasma jet at the torch exhaust nozzle 7000-19 000 K; the air plasma torch parameters are easily tunable to produce a suitable plasma jet for the treatment of scrap tires. The calculated cold gas efficiency of the proposed plasma treatment system for scrap tires feedstocks is 82.72%. The average weight of scrap tires in KSA is 218 500 t per year. After plasma treatment, the heat energy per ton produced annually from scrap tires in KSA is 475.4 TJ. The 16 t of synthetic syngas is enough to produce 50 013 MJ/day converted into electricity 13 972.6 kWh/day, and the 80 t of slag is enough for different industrial products. The total annual gross profit for all the products (pyrolysis oils, synthetic syngas, and slag) is $28.19 million, while the gross annual cost is $9.202 million with a cash recovery period of 1.36 years, neglecting the income tax.