Ekoprena production gearing up for commercial sales
It’s now been six years since Sumitomo Rubber introduced its first eco-oriented tyre containing a form of epoxidised natural rubber called Ekoprena. Yet despite Sumitomo’s success with this product, Ekoprena remains an unknown quantity in much of the wider tyre world. The rubber’s developers, the Malaysian Rubber Board, intends to change this. Last year it appointed two companies to produce Ekoprena in quantities sufficient for its commercialization. Tyres & Accessories recently spoke to Paul Brown, head of the Advanced Materials and Product Design Unit at the Tun Abdul Razak Research Centre, the UK-based research centre run by the Malaysian Rubber Board, and he confirmed that commercial production of Ekoprena will get under way this year.
“Until now Ekoprena has been restricted by limited production,” Brown comments. “It was only being manufactured in a pilot plant scale by the Lembaga Getah Malaysia (the Malaysian Rubber Board, or LGM), and over the years there has been various interest in the material, but the 200 tonne per year production limit meant it would be hard for major tyre makers to implement Ekoprena in a full testing programme. With an output of only a couple of hundred tonnes a year, you can’t actually produce that many tyres.”
The first company to explore Ekoprena’s potential was Sumitomo Rubber Industries, who realised that the unique properties of Ekoprena at 25 per cent modification in some ways matched the solution SBR used in low rolling resistance tyres as brought out initially by Michelin. Sumitomo’s developers worked on an Ekoprena-based tread compound for the Enasave ES801. Later, in the Enasave 97, they looked at replacing the other synthetic rubber parts and oil-derived components. They replaced the casing fibres with natural fibres and processed oils with natural oils; they removed the butyl liner and used one of the properties of the NR to help make a liner. The sidewall, which would normally probably have been a natural rubber due to the dying blend, was changed so that there was no synthetic rubber in the tyre. Therefore the whole tyre – all the rubber and materials – were grown on a tree, even if some had been chemically modified.
“With Sumitomo, this was a small company saying “look what we can do” and it generated interest in Ekoprena,” comments Brown. “On the back of that happening, the Malaysian government, through our body the LGM, came to an agreement with two rubber producers in Malaysia – Mardec Berhad and Felda Rubber Industries Sdn Bhd – to make the material. At the moment Mardec is running pilot trials at its plant (as is Felda) and getting ready to come on stream at the end of the second quarter of this year or the beginning of the third.”
The Advanced Materials and Product Design Unit head shares that the two companies are “aiming for around 12,000 tonnes per annum by the end of this year,” and scale-up plans already exist. “These plans involve producing 300,000 tonnes per annum by 2020 – quite a large scale.” Two companies were selected for commercial production, Brown adds, as it is important to have more than one company producing the material: “The tyre majors will be a lot happier knowing that there are multiple sources to rely on. In addition to providing greater security of supplies, they can make a blend of the sources to improve consistency.”
Wet grip ‘at least’ as good as synthetic rubber
Although its performance in the area of low rolling resistance is Ekoprena’s signature quality, Paul Brown reports that the substance enables a wet grip at least as good as synthetic rubber. “Another benefit is that the oils in Ekoprena won’t have PAH in them, as they’re not aromatic. Consequently, they will by default not fail that particular regulation.”
As for price, Ekoprena will most likely always remain a premium product. “At the moment it’s selling into a niche market – you’re paying to be seen to be green,” Brown observes. “But even in full production, I suspect it will be a little bit more expensive than the alternative. Part of the issue with costing is that you are working with latex grade rubber, which is more expensive than a general grade rubber to start with, and then we do some chemistry on it before we get to the dry rubber stage. Tyre grade rubber coagulates before it is collected, with latex grade you have to collect it before it coagulates – do you have to go around and collect it a few hours after you tap it. So your labour is high, you have to go around twice a day – once to tap, once to collect – and that’s an extra cost factor. It means a person can’t get to as many trees. So latex is naturally more expensive, And then it’s chemically treated, which is an extra factor. Ekoprena is always going to be more expensive than latex-grade rubber. It will not be cheaper than the synthetic equivalent until oil prices get very, very high. And if oil prices become very high, the demand for natural rubber will be higher and that will put prices up anyway.”
Even with a price tag above synthetic rubber, Ekoprena’s qualities ensure it will be well received. Paul Brown comments that legislation and increased efforts to reduce fuel consumption mean interest in the product is high. “I’m sure the same benefits could be seen in the truck tyre market, where the whole sector is far more fuel aware. Car buyers tend more to buy on price. But I think, with tyre labeling coming out, fleet buyers are going to be interested, company car operators are going to start to be more interested. Because it doesn’t matter who’s running the car, if it’s going to be five per cent more fuel efficient it will save money.”
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