Recycled carbon black: Nokian Tyres joins project

Nokian Tyres is taking part in a research project that aims to improve the quality and yield of recycled carbon black from end-of-life tyres, with the goal of using this material more extensively in tyre and rubber products. The two-year, DKK 6.3 million (£737,600) development project is coordinated by Windspace Group A/S and 61.6 per cent financed by government initiative the Danish Eco-Innovation Program.

Other participants in the ‘Development of environmental technologies for circular recycling of carbon black from tire pyrolysis’ project include Environmental Waste International, Kiso A/S and Danish Technological Institute. The main objective is to chemically recycle carbon black from 30,000 tonnes of end-of-life-tyres; Nokian Tyres’ role in the project is to define the target properties for the improved recycled carbon black and test the materials produced.

“Nokian Tyres has worked on more sustainable tyres for years, and as a company, we want to increase our understanding about recycled carbon black,” says Heini Siekkinen, senior manager, Research and Sustainability at Nokian Tyres. “Getting production scale volumes of improved recycled carbon black would enable testing it in tyres and comparing it to both virgin carbon black and regular recycled carbon black.”

Balance between materials & tyre properties

The tyre maker first included recycled carbon black in one of its commercial product lines in 2022 and views this as a “step forward” towards reaching one of its key sustainability targets – to increase the share of recycled and renewable raw materials in tyres to 50 per cent by 2030.

When introducing new raw materials in tyres, Nokian Tyres considers finding the right balance between raw material selection and tyre properties to be “one of the most demanding tasks.”

“The use of new raw materials requires a great deal of product development efforts and testing to find the best combination, as new raw materials can modify the compound properties. The use of recycled or renewable materials must not impair a tyre’s safety characteristics,” says Siekkinen. “More extensive use of recycled carbon black in manufacturing tyres and other rubber products is also in line with the EU’s sustainable development goals, according to which the material recovery of used tyres is to be increased and incineration reduced.”