With nearly 200 components, including many chemical products, the manufacture of a tire is like a complex and delicate recipe with very real side effects on the environment. To limit the impact of tyres, manufacturers are trying to develop models that consume less energy and, above all, that pollute less during their manufacture and during their aging cycle.
Goodyear has also recently unveiled a so-called demonstration tire, made up of 90% renewable materials. The American manufacturer indicates that its tire “has passed all the regulatory tests in force as well as those internal to the company“. Goodyear specifies that this new tire has a lower rolling resistance than that of a comparable conventional tire. Concretely, this means that it “has the potential to deliver better fuel economy and a reduced carbon footprint“.
In terms of cooking recipe, the American tire manufacturer has lifted the veil on the ingredients of this tire which includes 17 ingredients divided into 12 different components. The engineers worked on carbon black, which is used, among other things, to reinforce the rubber of tires and inner tubes. Usually obtained by burning petroleum products, Goodyear presented four different types of carbon black obtained from methane, carbon dioxide, vegetable oil and waste tire pyrolysis oil. This helps reduce carbon emissions, according to the brand.
Goodyear also used soybean oil from surplus food and animal feed. This oil keeps the tire rubber flexible, whatever the temperature. This is not a first since eight types of brand tires, including racing tires, already contain soybean oil.
To improve grip and reduce fuel consumption, this demonstration tire contains silica (or silicon dioxide) from “high quality” produced from rice husk residues. Again, this is a by-product obtained during rice processing and often discarded.
Other components include recycled polyester from bottles, pine resins, polymers from organic raw materials and recycled steel for cables. The steel is produced in an Electric Arc Furnace (EAF), which requires less energy and reduces greenhouse gas emissions compared to steel produced in a blast furnace .
Although this demonstration tire is almost operational, Goodyear plans to produce a tire this year made of 70% sustainable materials. This is the realization of a concept presented just a year ago.