Steel wire firm Bekaert shares that it has obtained the first third-party certificates for its tyre reinforcement with high recycled steel content and has delivered the initial batches of this steel to Bridgestone Corporation. According to the company, high recycled content halves the CO2 footprint of its product, and such certification helps meet demand from customers and end markets while addressing a “critical challenge in the industry.”
Synthetic rubber producer Synthos has announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with OMV, an Austrian multinational integrated oil, gas, and petrochemicals company. Under the MOU, the two firms will cooperate on the long-term supply of sustainable raw materials, with a focus on sustainable butadiene for synthetic rubber used in tyre manufacturing.
Tyre makers often refer to the ‘race to road’ technology transfer when talking about motorsport engagements, but ‘race to loading bay’ is something that perhaps only Continental can claim bragging rights for. The tyre maker is using carbon black from recycled racing tyres in its production of solid tyres.
Kumho Tire and synthetic rubber manufacturer Synthos have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the joint development of sustainable tyre raw materials. Under the MOU, the two companies will conduct a joint research and development project for Neodymium-Butadiene rubber using Bio-Butadiene and expand the use of environmentally friendly synthetic rubber in tyre manufacturing.
Pyrum Innovations has dropped plans to build a pyrolysis tyre recycling plant at Homburg, in Germany’s Saarland – but is still confident of setting up its second facility within the originally-announced timeframe, more or less. The company has already identified a potential new location.
A scientific study conducted by researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute highlights the CO2 savings the pyrolysis process offers over conventional means of tyre recycling. Titled ‘A comparative life cycle assessment of tyre recycling using pyrolysis compared to conventional end-of-life pathways’, the study contrasts Pyrum Innovations’ pyrolysis process against three other end-of-life tyre disposal methods.
WMG at the University of Warwick in Coventry and Canada’s University of Victoria are the joint recipients of the inaugural Synthos Rubber Circularity Award, an international competition launched earlier this year to encourage cutting-edge ideas and solutions that significantly improve the environmental performance of synthetic rubber-based tyre compounds. Announcing the winners, Synthos states that the researchers impressed with their “breakthrough technology research concept” but did not elaborate on their work.
Recycling company Remondis Group recently signed a letter of intent with Pyrum Innovations. The partners intend to set up a plant for reclaiming raw materials from end-of-life tyres on a site in Bremen, Germany that’s owned by Weserport, a subsidiary of Remondis sister company Rhenus. This plant will be capable of recycling 20,000 tonnes of tyres annually.
Pyrum Innovations has produced the first batch of pyrolysis oil in one of the two new reactors it has installed at its main facility in Germany. Although the Pyrum team has only made “small quantities” of oil so far, this marks a further step towards volume production.
Following on from their call to action at the 2021 Smithers rCB conference, Bridgestone Corporation and Michelin Group have updated progress on their goal of increasing recovered carbon black (rCB) utilisation in tyre production. A joint technical white paper, titled Bridgestone & Michelin: Recovered Carbon Black Guidelines, shares the results of their work with other stakeholders to develop a global standard to this end.
Capacity at Pyrum Innovations AG’s main plant in Dillingen/Saar, Germany will soon increase following the successful warm commissioning of the site’s two new pyrolysis reactors. With licensing authorities having given the green light for production to start, Pyrum will soon begin recovering oil from end-of-life tyres within Reactors 2 & 3.
The inaugural meeting of the Tire-to-Tire Circular Economy Model consortium took place at Hankook Tire & Technology’s Technodome facility in Daejeon, South Korea on 1 November. The Hankook Tire-initiated consortium aims to create a sustainable business model for end-of-life tyres in Korea by “designing innovative upcycling processes” for turning them into new tyres.
Polish end-of-life-tyre (ELT) recycler ReOil is increasing its pyrolysis activities in Bukowno and has contracted Zeppelin Systems to build a second plant there. Construction is scheduled to start in February 2024 and when completed the new plant will treble plant capacity at the 11-hectare (27-acre) site to around 60,000 tonnes of ELTs annually. Zeppelin Systems intends to provide solutions it can later offer as part of license arrangements.
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.
The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) has validated Goodyear’s near-term and net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets. SBTi evaluated the tyre maker’s Scope 1 and Scope 2 near-term target ambition and determined this to be “in line with a trajectory of limiting warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.” The SBTi team also evaluated the Scope 1, 2 and 3 long-term target ambition and considers this aligned with its 1.5°C mitigation pathways for reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
If you would like the latest news from the Chinese tyre industry in Chinese, visit our partner site TyrepressChina.com. Or click below to continue on Tyrepress.