In 2020, Goodyear pledged to develop a brand new tire made fully of sustainable supplies inside the subsequent decade. Today the corporate has unveiled a tire with 70 p.c sustainable materials content material, which reveals the progress it has made in the direction of reaching its final objective. The tire options 13 substances throughout 9 totally different tire parts, together with three totally different carbon blacks which can be historically made by burning petroleum merchandise.

Carbon black is usually used as a filler to bolster tires, in addition to different rubber merchandise, and to elongate their lifespan. Instead of utilizing carbon black produced utilizing petroleum, Goodyear used ones that had been made utilizing methane, carbon dioxide and plant-based oil. The firm says the strategies of manufacturing its suppliers used to create the sustainable carbon blacks generated much less carbon emissions than conventional processes. 

Goodyear has additionally been utilizing soybean oil for sure tire traces as a substitute of petroleum oil, and this one is not any totally different. Soybean oil permits tires to stay pliable in altering temperatures with added traction advantages. The firm had been aiming to make use of 100% soybean oil in 4 of its tire traces in 2020, however it fell brief because of manufacturing points brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Goodyear’s new tire makes use of quite a lot of silica, which improves tire grip and assist decrease gasoline consumption, comprised of rice husk ash, as nicely. Rice husk ash is a by-product of rice milling, and it is fairly considerable in rice producing nations. Researchers have ben wanting into its use as a substitute for cement and and as a source of silica, and in accordance with Goodwill, it was capable of produce high-quality silica from the waste materials. In addition, the corporate broke down polyester supplies recycled from plastic bottles and different plastic wastes into their base chemical substances. They had been then changed into technical grade polyester used for tire cords that preserve the form of the tire. 

Chris Helsel, chief know-how officer at Goodyear, mentioned the 70 p.c sustainable tire “is an exciting achievement that demonstrates [the company’s] commitment to increasing the use of sustainable materials.” That mentioned, it was manufactured as a demo product, and the corporate has but to disclose whether or not it is going to be launched to the general public.