Bridgestone Americas, Inc. has started to use what it calls the industry’s first at-scale use of recovered carbon black (rCB) in the tire market as part of its partnership with Delta-Energy Group, LLC, a company that deals with material recovery from end-of-life (EOL) tires.
The move to at-scale commercialization of D-E Black, Delta-Energy Group’s proprietary rCB product recovered from EOL tires, marks a significant milestone in achieving Bridgestone Group’s long-term environmental vision of targeting 100% sustainable materials – and contributing to a reduction of over 50% CO2 emissions – by the year 2050 and beyond, Bridgestone says. The process by Delta-Energy Group to extract materials produces 81% less CO2 per ton as compared to vCB.
The investment also serves a larger mission at Bridgestone to drive toward a circular economy that eliminates waste through the continual use of resources. As demand for virgin carbon black (vCB) outpaces supply, the strategic investment by Bridgestone provides an alternative that benefits not only the tire industry but the planet as well, the company says.
To date, Bridgestone has purchased approximately 235 metric tons of rCB, the equivalent of more than 70,000 EOL tires, resulting in the reduction of approximately 765,000 pounds of CO2 emissions, compared to using vCB. By the end of 2020, Bridgestone plans to increase the use of D-E Black to 6,800 metric tons, equivalent to about 2 million EOL tires and a reduction of about 24 million pounds of carbon emissions – the amount to power nearly 2,000 homes or more than 2,300 passenger vehicles for an entire year.
Bridgestone is using D-E Black in high-quality tires for agriculture and passenger applications across multiple plants in the Americas, including the Bridgestone Des Moines Agriculture Tire Plant, Aiken County Passenger Tire Plant and the Bridgestone Cuernavaca Tire Plant.
