The reveal follows the news that the tyre company plans on producing and selling a tyre with up to 70% sustainable material in 2023.
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company has unveiled a demonstration tyre that is made up of 90% sustainable materials including soybean oil and is said to have lower rolling resistance compared to a traditional material tyre. Lower rolling resistance means that the demonstration tyre has the potential to offer better fuel savings and carbon footprint reduction on top of the sustainability of its composition.
The 90% sustainable material demo tyre includes 17 ingredients across 12 different components which include:
- Soybean oil helps keep the tyre’s rubber compound pliable in changing temperatures. The use of Soybean oil will reduce the use of petroleum-based products.
- Silica produced from rice husk waste residue (RHA silica), a by-product of rice processing that is often discarded and put into landfills.
- Recycled Polyesterfrom plastic bottles.
- Bio-renewable pine tree resinsreplace traditional petroleum-based resins. They are used to help improve and enhance tyre traction performance.
- Carbon black is used for compound reinforcement and to help increase tyre life and has traditionally been made by burning various types of petroleum products. The 90% sustainable material demo tyre features four different types of carbon blackthat are produced from methane, carbon dioxide, plant-based oil and end-of-life tyre pyrolysis oil feedstocks.
While the demonstration tyre has passed all applicable regulatory tests as well as Goodyear’s own internal testing requirements, the company says that bringing a 90% sustainable material tyre to market will require further collaboration with suppliers to identify the scale needed for these innovative materials to be produced at such high volumes.
“We continue to make progress toward our goal of introducing the first 100% sustainable material tyre 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 utilised our team’s tenacity to not only demonstrate our capabilities to produce a 90% sustainable material tyre, but to also produce a tyre with up to 70% sustainable material content this year. Our team continues to showcase its innovation and commitment to building a better future.”
After demonstrating the capabilities of a 70% sustainable material tyre in January 2022, Goodyear has confirmed that it plans to start selling the 70% sustainable material tyres in 2023.
Keyword: Goodyear unveils 90% sustainable material tyre approved for road use