RUBBER BIOREFINE
Rubber should recover value.
Like aluminium.
Like glass.
Akin is developing Rubber Biorefine- a biotechnology platform that combines precision molecular imaging with enzymatic recovery, unlocking virgin-like materials from end-of-life tire waste.
THE PROBLEM
Rubber recyclers collect it. Now we can refine it.
Every year, over a billion tyres reach end-of-life. Unlike metals or glass, rubber loses almost all its value in conventional recycling; shredded into crumb, downcycled into road filler, or simply incinerated.
Value destruction at scale
Mechanical recycling breaks polymer chains, producing low-grade crumb rubber worth a fraction of virgin natural rubber feedstock.
Complex, heterogeneous feedstock
Tyres contain not just rubber but a multitude of ingredients. Conventional chemistry can't selectively recover value across this complexity.
A missing biorefinery
Other industries built enzymatic valorisation pathways decades ago. Rubber still has none. Akin is building it.
¹ Rubber polymer value recovery — the fraction of end-of-life tire rubber re-entering high-value material streams (new tires, rubber goods, polymer inputs). Excludes crumb rubber used as road fill or playground infill, which does not constitute value recovery in the material sense. Sources: WorldSteel Association (worldsteel.org); International Aluminium Institute (world-aluminium.org, 2020); CEPI global paper recycling data (cepi.org, 2021); Recovery Magazine global container glass estimate; EU BlackCycle project / CORDIS, European Commission (cordis.europa.eu).
OUR PLATFORM
One platform. Two capabilities.
Rubber BioRefine is a molecular biorefinery platform for upgrading recycled rubber. It combines a precision imaging service with next-generation enzymatic recovery. Two capabilities built on the same underlying technology.
Rubber Biorefine Imaging
Precision molecular imaging that reveals compound location, concentration, and quality inside rubber materials. Supports tire compound development, rCB quality assurance, and regulatory emissions testing (EURO 7).
Rubber Biorefine Recovery
Our enzymatic biorefinery process recovers high-value, virgin-grade rubber and chemical compounds from end-of-life tire feedstock. Designed for seamless integration alongside existing devulcanisation infrastructure.
WHY NOW
The window is open.
Regulation is closing it.
3.9Mt
ELT waste collected in Europe annually
End-of-life tyres are one of Europe's largest unaddressed polymer waste streams. Collection infrastructure is mature- value recovery is not.
EuRIC / ETRMA joint position paper, 2024 (euric.org)
~50%
Of collected EU tyres exported for processing elsewhere
Half of Europe's ELT feedstock leaves the continent for valorisation. Incoming EU export restrictions and the 2026 Circular Economy Act will close this route, forcing domestic value recovery at scale.
BlackCycle / CORDIS, European Commission (cordis.europa.eu)
EU Extended Producer Responsibility legislation, the Circular Economy Action Plan, and incoming tire regulation are steadily closing off landfill and incineration as disposal routes. The industry needs a value-recovery pathway, not a disposal pathway.
Akin's enzymatic biorefinery platform is the only approach that combines molecular-level selectivity with scalable process economics. Built in the Netherlands, with deep integration into the European recycling value chain.
We are actively seeking strategic partners across the tire recycling, chemical production, and automotive supply chain sectors.
OUR MISSION
"While others recycle rubber, we refine it."
We believe rubber deserves the same recovery efficiency achieved in best-in-class circular industries- aluminium recovers 76% of material value, steel 83%, glass 76%. Rubber today recovers only 13%. True circularity requires molecular precision. That is what we are building.
Ieva Palubeckaitė, PhD
CEO, Akin
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