Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.179240
Licence creative commons licence
Title (Primary) Long term biodegradation study on tire and road wear particles and chemicals thereof
Author Weyrauch, S.; Seiwert, B.; Voll, M.; Reemtsma, T.
Source Titel Science of the Total Environment
Year 2025
Department EAC
Volume 975
Page From art. 179240
Language englisch
Topic T9 Healthy Planet
Supplements https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0048969725008757-mmc1.pdf
Keywords Vulcanization accelerators; Antioxidants; HMMM; Rubber; Rivers; Sediments; Persistence; Sorption
Abstract Tire and road wear particles (TRWP) are continuously formed by automotive traffic on roads. This study reports effects of long-term degradation over 2 years in water and in soil in the presence of microbes on TRWP and on cryo-milled tire tread (CMTT). Degradation in water had little measurable effect on physical properties of TRWP; a shift towards larger particle sizes was mainly due to the mechanical stress from stirring. The total quantified extractables (TQE) of 27 chemicals and transformation products determined from tire particles were reduced by 90 % from TRWP and CMTT in water and by 85 % in soil. Most of this decrease occurs within the first months. For both materials, however, the speed of loss of TQE in water and in soil decreased drastically over time. Its kinetics was approximated by two phases of 1st order kinetics, resulting in half-lives from 17 days for diphenylguanidine (DPG) in phase 1 to 520 days for 6-PPD-quinone (6-PPDQ) in phase 2 of TRWP biodegradation in water. For soil, half-lives tend to be clearly longer in phase 2 compared to water but remained <1000 days for chemicals such as benzothiazole sulfonic acid (BTSA), N,N′-diphenyl-p-phenylendiamine (DPPD) and hydroxybenzothiazole (OH-BT). For N-(1,3-dimethylbutyl)-N′-phenyl-1,4-phenylenediamine (6-PPD) and 6-PPDQ they exceeded 2000 days from TRWP. Only 1–15 % of TQE lost from the tire materials remained detectable at the end of the experimental period in the supernatant of the suspension or in leachates of the soil. Mostly benzothiazoles were determined from solution. The biodegradation experiments show an effective reduction of a large part of the chemical burden of TRWP of polar and moderately polar compounds. Despite that, TRWP may serve as a long-term reservoir for some of the tire related chemicals or their transformation products in the environment.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=30630
Weyrauch, S., Seiwert, B., Voll, M., Reemtsma, T. (2025):
Long term biodegradation study on tire and road wear particles and chemicals thereof
Sci. Total Environ. 975 , art. 179240 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.179240