The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company unveiled a demonstration tire comprised of 90% sustainable materials. This demonstration tire has passed all applicable regulatory testing as well as Goodyear’s internal testing.
The tire showed lower rolling resistance, meaning it has the potential to offer better fuel savings and carbon footprint reduction.
“We continue to make progress toward our goal of introducing the first 100% sustainable-material tire in the industry by 2030,” said Chris Helsel, senior vice president, Global Operations and Chief Technology Officer. “The past year was a pivotal one toward achieving this goal. We researched new technologies, identified opportunities for further collaboration and utilized our team’s tenacity to not only demonstrate our capabilities to produce a 90% sustainable-material tire, but to also produce a tire with up to 70% sustainable-material content this year. Our team continues to showcase its innovation and commitment to building a better future.”
Goodyear’s 90% sustainable-material 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. These carbon black technologies target reduced carbon emissions, circularity and the use of bio-based carbons, while still delivering on performance.
Another of the ingredients that make up the 90% biomaterial is soybean oil. It helps keep the tire’s rubber compound pliable in changing temperatures. While nearly 100% of soy protein is used in food/animal feed applications, a significant surplus of oil is left over and available for use in industrial applications.
And talking about tires, the tire includes a high-quality silica produced from rice husk waste residue (RHA silica), a byproduct of rice processing that is often discarded and put into landfills.
Also, in this demonstration tire, traditional petroleum-based resins are replaced with bio-renewable pine tree resins.
Goodyear, working with its supply base, plans to sell a tire with up to 70% sustainable-material content in 2023. Bringing a 90% sustainable-material tire to market will require further collaboration with the company’s supply base to identify the scale necessary for these innovative materials to produce that specific tire at high volumes.
