When thinking about making vehicles greener, most people think about how green a vehicle is; they typically think about fuel economy or the shift toward electric propulsion. But there are plenty of other petroleum products in vehicles, the largest being the tires on all 4 corners.
Goodyear Tire announced last week that they have developed a demonstration concept tire that is made of 90% sustainable materials, and most importantly, it has already passed all regulatory testing. This demonstration concept is part of Goodyear’s quest to make a tire from 100% sustainable material by 2030. The company first debuted a 70% sustainable tire in January 2022 that they intend to put into production later this year.
The 90% sustainable material tire uses the following recycled or replacement materials:
- Carbon black, which is included in tires for compound reinforcement and to help increase their life, has traditionally been made by burning various petroleum products. Goodyear’s demonstration tire features four different types of carbon black that are produced from methane, carbon dioxide, plant-based oil, and end-of-life tire pyrolysis oil feedstocks.
- The use of soybean oil in this demonstration tire helps keep the tire’s rubber compound pliable in changing temperatures. Soybean oil is a bio-based resource that helps to reduce Goodyear’s use of petroleum-based products. While nearly 100% of soy protein is used in food/animal feed applications, a significant surplus of oil is left over and available for industrial applications.
- Silica is an ingredient often used in tires to help improve grip and reduce fuel consumption. This demonstration tire includes high-quality silica from rice husk waste residue, a byproduct of rice processing that is often discarded and put into landfills.
- Polyester is recycled from post-consumer bottles by reverting the polyester into base chemicals and reforming them into polyester used in tire cords.
- Resins are used to help improve and enhance tire traction performance. In this demonstration tire, traditional petroleum-based resins are replaced with bio-renewable pine tree resins.
- Bead wire and steel cords reinforce the structure of a radial tire. This demonstration tire uses bead wire and steel cord from steel with high-recycled content, which is produced using the electric arc furnace (EAF) process. The utilization of the EAF process allows for steel to be produced with reduced energy use and higher recycled content. The EAF process has the potential for lower greenhouse gas emissions than steel produced using a blast furnace.
Aside from the sustainability in the tire’s construction, the 90% sustainable-material tire has a lower rolling resistance than a traditional tire, allowing for better fuel economy or a longer electric vehicle range.
Goodyear plans to further develop this tire into production, though a timeline has not yet been released. Customers interested in purchasing the 70% sustainable-materials tires can register for updates at Goodyear.com/SustainableMaterialTire
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