Petroleum-based filler has been used in manufacturing tires for over 100 years. To reduce environmental impact and to recycle food stuff, researchers from Ohio State University have developed a new type of rubber-like material.
To create the new material researchers spend several years cultivating new domestic rubber sources. Areas looked at included a rubber-producing dandelion. The breakthrough came with a method for transforming eggshells and tomato peels into replacements for carbon black. This is petroleum-based filler that many companies purchase for use in tire manufacture. It is estimated in the U.S. that around 30 percent of a typical automobile tire is carbon black. The material is produced by the incomplete combustion of heavy petroleum products such as FCC tar, coal tar, ethylene cracking tar, and a small amount from vegetable oil. The compound is added to help increase the durability of tires (and, as the name suggests, it leads to the black color of many tires).
The use of eggshells and tomato peels ticks several boxes with the food recycling initiative, and such by-products of home domestics are discarded in high quantities. For the research, the bio-material was collected from local food producers. The eggshells and fibrous material from the tomatoes provide an effective filler. Eggshells in particular possess porous microstructures; these provide a larger surface area for contact with the rubber, imparting considerable strength.
According to lead researcher, Katrina Cornish the technology that created the material has the potential to address three issues:
Firstly, it makes the manufacture of rubber products more sustainable.
Secondly, for countries like the U.S. it lowers the dependency on oil imports.
Thirdly, it lowers the quantity of waste going to landfills.
There’s also a problem with supply of the current raw material – carbon black, so the concept not only helps the environment it addresses a future economic weak area. Here Dr. Cornish explains: “The tire industry is growing very quickly, and we don’t just need more natural rubber, we need more filler, too.”
The academic adds: “The number of tires being produced worldwide is going up all the time, so countries are using all the carbon black they can make. There’s no longer a surplus, so we can’t just buy some from Russia to make up the difference like we used to.”
There’s one difference with the new ‘rubber’ – it won’t appear black and instead will be, appropriate to the use of tomatoes, a red-brown color.
