Bridgestone Americas Inc. is to be an end-user of recovered carbon black (rCB), following its plans to use some 6.800 tonnes of rCB by the end-2020. The partnership with resource recovery company, Delta Energy Group (DEG) will lead to a reduction of some 24 million pounds of carbon emissions and could power nearly 2,000 homes or more than 2,300 passenger vehicles for a year. Bridgestone has previously worked with DEG to create and repurpose rCB for new tyres, and will continue to increase its strategic rCB use, beginning with production at its agricultural tyre plant in Des Moines, Iowa.
DEG’s patented, catalyst-driven polymerisation process produces rCB that has significant commercial market value – Bridgestone said it had so far purchased over 215 tonnes of Delta Energy’s rCB, equivalent to about 64,000 end-of-life tyres, which has brought about significant positive implications for C02 production. DEG’s process boasts an 81% reduction in C02 production with rCB compared to virgin carbon black. Bridgestone’s purchased amount has apparently kept 765,000 pounds of C02 emissions out of our air. DEG is thus expected to “increase its ability to scale through an expanded production footprint as demand for rCB grows.”
Tyre pyrolysis seems to be gaining interest of multiple manufacturers at the moment – Germany’s Continental has also recently announced a supply deal for 10ktpa rCB from Pyrolyx, based on a five-year expansion programme.