Synthetic rubber is one of the most important materials for tyre production. Generally, it is a petroleum-based product. Used tyres mostly working as fuel for thermal recycling in Japan cause a lot of CO2 emissions. Bridgestone and Eneos would like to start a cooperation for a recycling business turning used tyres into raw materials.
In detail, this means that the companies want to take part in demonstrations for the introduction of chemical recycling technologies in order to achieve profitable production of chemical products like butadiene. According to company information, these technologies consist of disassembling used tyres via precise pyrolysis for the production of petrochemical raw materials, which are in turn necessary for producing petrochemical products.
Part of two R&D projects
Demonstrations are supposed to be boosted until 2030 in order to finally achieve mass production. The project is one of two research and development projects (R&D) within the framework of the initiative “Developing Chemical Product Manufacturing Technologies Utilizing Used Tires“. It was promoted by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) of Japan and adopted as part of “the Green Innovation Fund“ of NEDO.
“Bridgestone has defined a vision, which focuses on sustainability, for all of its management decisions and business activities. It cooperates with a variety of partners to realize this vision as a company for sustainable solutions creating societal and customer-related added value”, says Shuichi Ishibashi, Global CEO and Representative Executive Officer at Bridgestone.
He adds: “I am looking forward to starting this joined project with Eneos, a leading company in the petroleum and petrochemical industry. This project represents a crucial step towards our aims of increasing the resource cycle and supporting climate neutrality in the tyre and rubber industry. We would like to expand our recycling business with this approach, which turns used tyres into “renewed” raw materials. I am very confident that the introduction of technologies for this purpose will help us to realize our framework plan in the area of sustainability. In the future, we will support different co-creation projects in order to contribute to a sustainable society.”
