A new collaboration between The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company and California-based bioengineering firm Visolis will lead to the production of isoprene through the upcycling of biobased materials. This collaboration, which Goodyear announced yesterday, is supported by a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant awarded to Visolis earlier this year.
Five years of joint research has led to a breakthrough in the production of synthetic rubber. Yokohama Rubber says it has developed the world’s first technology for efficiently producing isoprene from a biomass, and by doing so reduces dependence on petroleum.
The partnership between Michelin and Amyris to develop and commercialise isoprene sourced by renewable feedstocks has now been in place for three years, and Michelin announced today that a third company has joined the collaboration. Thermoplastic resins and biopolymers producer Braskem will work together with the other two companies to develop a technology that enables plant sugars, such as those found in Brazilian sugarcane or cellulosic feedstocks, to be used to produce renewable isoprene. The addition of Braskem is expected to accelerate the technology’s industrialisation.
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