Goodyear demonstration truck tyre with 63pc sustainable material

Goodyear has presented an innovative demonstration truck tyre, which it claims is made with 63 per cent sustainable-material content.

The tyre includes 15 featured ingredients across 20 tyre components, including four different carbon blacks, rapeseed oil, a unique variety of silica, and technical grade polyester.

This demonstration tyre is labelled “A” in fuel efficiency meaning it can offer the same fuel saving as the most efficient Goodyear truck tyres currently on the market.

Carbon black is included in tyres for compound reinforcement and to help increase their tread life and has traditionally been made by burning various types of petroleum or coal tar-based products.

This demonstration tyre features four different carbon blacks that are produced from plant-based oil, end-of-life tyre pyrolysis oil, carbon dioxide capture and conversion and a low-carbon methane pyrolysis process.

Some of the petroleum-based oils in this demonstration tyre were replaced by the use of rapeseed oil. Rapeseed oil is a bio-based resource that helps keep a tyre’s rubber compound pliable in changing temperatures.

The use of bio-based rapeseed oil is in line with the Goodyear’s goal of fully replacing petroleum-derived oils in its products by 2040.

Silica is an ingredient often used in tyres to help improve grip and reduce fuel consumption. This demonstration tyre contains a unique variety of silica produced from rice husk ash, a byproduct of rice processing that is often discarded and put into landfills. A high-quality silica has been produced from this waste ash.

Polyester is recycled from plastic bottles and other plastic waste by reverting the polyester into its base chemicals and reforming them into technical grade polyester feasible for tyre cords, which enables better retreadability.

In the future, Goodyear says this demonstration tyre can be connected and monitor a variety of tyre health parameters. This has the potential to reduce waste and increase efficiency by maintaining ideal pressure and tyre condition.

Monitoring the health of the tyre is an important factor in determining whether or when a tyre can be renewed, thus potentially contributing to circularity and increasing efficiency.