SRI utilising hydrogen energy in tyre manufacturing

Since establishing its new long-term sustainability policy in 2021, Sumitomo Rubber Group has piloted and demonstrated proof of concept for the use of hydrogen as a source of energy at its tyre factory in Shirakawa, Japan. Combined with power generated from solar photovoltaic panels installed in the plant’s carpark, Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI) claims that the use of hydrogen has led to carbon neutrality (Scopes 1 and 2) for its production at Shirakawa, beginning in January 2023.

SRI considers hydrogen power better suited to the generation of high-temperature, high-pressure steam for use in the vulcanisation process than electric power. During the proof of concept, it supplied steam generated with a hydrogen boiler to the NEO-T01 metal core production system used during the vulcanisation process. This hydrogen-powered production system began producing tyres on 23 January 2023. Japan’s national research and development agency, the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), supported the proof of concept.

The carport-type solar panels that SRI installed in the carpark generate more power than the pilot project’s NEO-T01 equipment requires. As a result, SRI says it has been able to produce volume market tyres in a carbon neutral (Scope 1 and 2) manner, the first time a Japanese tyre maker has achieved this.

Expansion of hydrogen use

The proof of concept is scheduled to continue until February 2024, and following this, SRI intends to expand the use of hydrogen energy to all processes at the Shirakawa Factory. It will also will “formulate a detailed plan” for the use of hydrogen power at other plants, both in Japan and overseas.

SRI aims to locally source the hydrogen it requires for tyre making, procuring the substance from a hydrogen production plant in Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture. It comments that Fukushima – where the world’s largest hydrogen production facility using renewable energy opened in 2020 – is “very advanced” in this field. More than 40 per cent of energy consumed in Fukushima is currently sourced from renewables, and the prefecture aims to increase this ratio to 100 per cent by 2040.

Carbon neutrality goals through the increased use of hydrogen and solar power are an integral part of SRI’s newly announced circular economy concept, Towanowa.