How many years before a pyrolysis plant pays for itself? That depends on what you do with your waste today and what it costs. So instead of a price list, here is the logic, ready for your own numbers.
The formula is simple, the inputs are not
Simple payback is the investment divided by the annual net benefit: savings plus revenue, minus operating costs. For pyrolysis, five items make up that benefit:
- disposal costs avoided on your own waste;
- gate fees for other people’s waste, if there is spare capacity;
- sales of oil, carbon and, from tyres, steel;
- your own power and heat from the pyrolysis gas;
- operating costs, on the other side of the equation.
All of them trace back to the waste, so that is where the calculation starts: what it is, how much there is, how it varies and what disposal costs today.
Waste you stop paying for
In most projects, this is the item that decides. Every tonne processed on your own line is a tonne you no longer pay to landfill or incinerate. Start from your contract price, not a market average.
Where that price is heading matters too. Czech Act No. 541/2020 Sb. sets a statutory fee for landfilling a tonne of recoverable waste, charged on top of the landfill operator’s own price.
| Year | Statutory fee per tonne |
|---|---|
| 2020 | CZK 500 |
| 2023 | CZK 1,000 |
| 2026 | CZK 1,600 |
| 2029 | CZK 1,850 |
From 2030, recyclable and recoverable waste, including waste above a set calorific value, may not be landfilled at all. So compare the plant with disposal costs over its whole working life, not with today’s tariff. More in our article on the 2030 landfill ban.
Spare capacity, other people’s waste
The industrial line processes 5,600–8,000 tonnes a year. Spare capacity can go to neighbouring companies, municipalities or waste collectors, who pay to hand over their waste, turning a cost into revenue.
Count on it with care. You need steady supply contracts, suitable material and a permit covering those waste types. PE, PP, PS and tyres work best; PET and PVC only in small shares.
Outputs you can sell
On average, plastics yield 63% oil, 34% gas and 3% carbon. Tyres yield 36% oil, 23% gas, 34% carbon and 7% steel cord, about 70 kg per tonne. The gas usually stays on site as fuel; the rest is for sale.
The oil becomes feedstock for new plastics or fuel for boilers and CHP units. Carbon serves as a sorbent, a concrete additive or an industrial raw material, and from tyres as recovered carbon black. Steel cord goes to steelworks.
Prices depend mainly on quality and legal status: oil and carbon registered under REACH can be sold as products, not waste. If you would rather not find buyers yourself, we can buy the outputs at a price fixed in the contract, collection included. See also what pyrolysis oil is used for.
Energy you don’t have to buy
The industrial line needs about 380 kW to run. A CHP unit fired by its own pyrolysis gas covers that, so the line is energy self-sufficient and needs no permanent grid connection.
Anything the gas produces beyond that adds to the benefit. Surplus power can supply the site or be exported, which needs a grid connection application. CHP heat only counts if you can use it, for drying, space heating or process heat.
The compact module, by contrast, heats its reactors electrically at 10–20 kW on average and gives off 150–450 kW of usable heat.
Operating costs and what drives them
This side is often underestimated. The industrial line is designed for 8,000 operating hours a year, which means shift staff, maintenance and service.
Feed preparation drives much of the cost. Tyres are shredded to about 55 × 55 mm. Metals, glass and stone do not decompose, moisture lowers efficiency, and PET and PVC are best separated first. Cleaner input means lower costs and better outputs.
Add output logistics, insurance and emission monitoring of the CHP unit, the plant’s only emission point.
Payback, with or without capex
For compact modules, the technology manufacturer expects payback within three years, depending on disposal costs avoided, product prices and own energy use. A feasibility study confirms it for a specific site.
You need not invest at all. Under pay per tonne, we finance, build and run the line and you pay for the volume processed, so payback becomes a comparison of today’s disposal cost per tonne with the processing price. In a joint venture, you bring the site, the waste and part of the capital, we bring the rest, and revenue is shared. See all partnership models.
For a first estimate, the calculator on our pyrolysis page turns the type and annual volume of your waste into the yield of oil, gas, carbon and steel, surplus power and the disposal costs you avoid.
Enter your waste in the pyrolysis calculator and bring the result to a free first consultation.