America's rural areas have absorbed a disproportionally large share of the detrimental environmental and economic effects caused by billions of landfilled tires. Typically the tires are used in urban and/or suburban areas and then transported, when no longer useful, to rural areas for storage-disposal. This project offers an opportunity to convert the negative effects of large scrap tire inventories in rural areas into jobs and markets, with both being focused at the specific sites where the current scrap tire landfills and/or future scrap tire collection sites are located. The WOMBAT project is a precise fit for the department of Agriculture's Rural and Community Development program. While still in its infancy, the WOMBAT technology has the potential to convert the pollution-related problems of huge tire inventories into two commercially viable activities with accompanying high tech jobs for the rural communities which now house the scrap tire landfills. Funds are requested to support research/ development activities for the WOMBAT project.
Anticipated Results/Potential Commercial Applications of Research: Scrap tires will become the chemical starting material for the production of steel, fertilizer, and a black powder which may be used as a fuel, a soil stabilizer, and/or as a metal sequestering agent. The WOMBAT chemical process necessitates the construction of and then the operation of the WOMBAT reactor, and hundreds of such reactors will be needed to impact the scrap tire problems facing rural America. To supply the reactors will necessitate a construction facility, and to operate each reactor will require on-site personnel. To meet these needs would require the employment of several thousand people.
