Pyrolysis is a promising technology to tackle the waste tyre disposal problem via converting the waste tyres into hydrocarbon fuels. This paper uses the experimental data of tyre pyrolysis (TCA/DTG and DTA) to examine both the kinetics and the heat flow at various heating rates for large tyre particles. An integrated model that considers the mass loss kinetics, exothermic kinetics, and heat flow together was developed. With the aid of the model, a multi-stage pyrolysis operation strategy is proposed. The strategy firstly starts with a heating stage to initialise the exothermic reactions in the pyrolysis. Then it changes to an adiabatic stage, where the exothermic heat is captured to facilitate the endothermic reactions afterwards. The multi-stage operation strategy achieves a significant energy saving comparing with the conventional operation strategy. (c) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.