Continental developing tires made from rubber, rice husks, and plastic bottles
(Motor Authority) — Continental is on the lookout at trash heaps and recycling bins to obtain sustainable materials for future tires.
The business hopes to make all of its tires solely from sustainable elements by 2050 at the most current, up from 15% to 20% renewable or recycled information these days. In a push release, Continental described how it’s on the lookout at agricultural squander like rice husks and dandelions, as nicely as recycled plastic bottles, to assist accomplish that intention.
A passenger motor vehicle tire can be composed of up to 100 different products, in accordance to Continental, and a single of the most significant is organic rubber, which the company mentioned accounts for 10% to 40% of the bodyweight of a fashionable tire.
Tire producers are on the lookout for alternate sources of purely natural rubber that can be extra sustainably developed on an industrial scale, as Bridgestone has carried out by making use of a desert shrub identified as guayule in some racing tires. Continental aims to use specially cultivated dandelions as a source of organic rubber.
Continental is also developing silica tire fillers built from the ash of rice husks, waste materials that cannot be utilised for foodstuff or animal feed, the firm observed. The procedure of turning them into silica is also more electricity productive than standard production procedures, Continental statements.
Other tire fillers are presently manufactured from crude oil, but Continental thinks plant-dependent rapeseed oils and resins designed from the leftovers of paper and wooden processing could provide as substitutes. As with rice husks, these are waste components that have no other sensible use, the firm reported.
Carbon black is yet another significant ingredient, and in this situation Continental desires to recycle outdated tires to get better the material. It lately signed an arrangement with Pyrum Improvements to use the latter’s pyrolysis course of action, which consists of utilizing large warmth to crack down outdated tires to extract usable materials. Continental is also working with “mechanical processing” to independent out other components, which include rubber, metal, and textile, from aged tires.
A further recycled materials Continental desires to make use of is PET plastic from consume bottles, which can be built into polyester yarn for tire casings. Involving 9 and 15 bottles can go into every tire, dependent on tire size, in accordance to Continental.
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Other tire brands are also on the lookout to make their items much more environmentally pleasant. Goodyear in January showed a prototype tire that contains 90% sustainable supplies, and ideas to start making tires with 70% sustainable components this calendar year. Michelin and Hyundai have also partnered on sustainable materials for long run EV tires.
