5/27/23, 3:29 PM Can tires turn green?

ENVIRONMENT

Can tires turn green?

Tire manufacturers are adopting greener production processes and more renewable materials,
but they have yet to get a grip on tire particle pollution
by Alex Scott
May 26, 2023 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 101, Issue 17

Credit: Shutterstock | Proponents of chemical recycling say the approach avoids landfilling used tires.

R
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ubber crumbs rain down onto more than

IN BRIEF
150 electric heating plates, raising their
temperature to over 600 °C within Tires’ substantial environmental
seconds. In an atmosphere depleted of oxygen, the
footprint is set to drop as producers
crumbs rapidly transform into a gas, which is cooled into
increase their use of renewable
a synthetic oil and a solid that is mostly carbon black.
This process is at the heart of a continuous thermal materials and efficient technologies
pyrolysis technology being commercialized by the emerge for chemically recycling them.
German start-up Pyrum Innovations to chemically Currently, most tires are incinerated
recycle tires. It saves 72% of the carbon dioxide
or landfilled, at a high environmental
emissions that would have resulted from the existing
systems for tire disposal and material recovery, the firm price. While the sector’s footprint may
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tells C&EN. be shrinking, millions of metric tons of ENVIRONMENT
rubber particles get released annually
Demand for products from Pyrum and other chemical How can companies recycle wind
as tires wear down on roads. And turbine blades?
recyclers of tires is increasing and may one day divert
millions of used tires from their most common independent scientists say this Magnesium complex plucks fluorine
from polytetrafluoroethylene, then gi
destinations of landfill or incineration. Some 4 billion pollution is a cause for concern. The it away
tires sit in landfills and stockpiles around the world, tire industry says it is trying to
Raúl Hernández Sánchez
according to the Tire Industry Project, and they have the
understand the impacts of these
potential to catch fire and leach hazardous chemicals Marina Evich
into the environment. The incineration of tires generates particles. Until issues around them
are addressed, however, the As nuclear waste piles up, scientists
substantial greenhouse gas emissions. seek the best long-term storage
sustainable tire will remain out of solutions
In a second sustainability shift taking place in the life
reach.
cycle of tires, manufacturers have started adopting
lower-carbon production processes and are using
increasing amounts of renewable materials—including
those from the chemical recycling of tires.

But just as these activities start to promise substantial environmental benefits, a growing number of
scientific studies indicate that tire and road wear particles (TRWPs)—generated when tires rub
against the road—could be substantially harming the environment. Scientists at Imperial College

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 5/27/23, 3:29 PM Can tires turn green?

London estimate that tires annually release 6 million metric tons (t) of TRWPs—typically linear
particles 100 µm long—making it the second-largest source of microplastic pollution, after single-use
plastics.

Credit: Pyrum Innovations

After being mechanically ground into granules, rubber-rich tire particles are fed into Pyrum Innovations’ vertical
pyrolysis reactor to make recycled carbon black and a synthetic oil.

For years, the Tire Industry Project (TIP), set up under the World Business Council for Sustainable
Development in 2005 by 11 companies that make about 65% of the world’s tires, has been
researching TRWPs’ environmental impact. And while the organization states in a fact sheet that its
key takeaway “has been that the presence of TRWP presents no significant risk to humans and the
environment,” some scientists say TRWPs’ effect is unclear.

Related: Tire-derived chemical kills salmon

Specifically, their research has linked certain chemicals in tire particles, such as N-(1,3-
dimethylbutyl)-N´-phenyl-​​p-​phenylenediamine (6PPD)—an antioxidant that stops tires from
degrading—​to mass die-offs of fish.

GREENER COMPOUNDS ROLL IN

The tire industry’s sustainability effort has two focuses, says Sarah Amick, senior vice president of
the US Tire Manufacturers Association (USTMA): optimizing tires’ rolling efficiency to minimize
vehicles’ fuel consumption and replacing fossil fuel–based raw materials with renewable ones to
lower greenhouse gas emissions.

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More than 100 compounds—including multiple types of rubber, like styrene-​butadiene rubber—go
into tires. The industry is investigating replacing some of them with renewable materials, such as
wood lignin for making tire antioxidants and soybean oil for multiple applications.

Credit: Nokian Tyres

Nokian Tyres is growing guayule shrubs in Spain as an additional source of natural rubber to go into its tires.

In the case of tires for combustion-engine vehicles, “more than 80% of the CO2 emissions that are
tire related are linked to vehicle fuel consumption,” Amick says.

Silica is already widely used in tires to reduce rolling resistance and thus fuel consumption. The
chemical firm Solvay is both optimizing rolling efficiency and using more renewable materials by
making silica from rice husk ash rather than from sand. When produced with renewable energy, rice
husk silica has a carbon footprint half that of silica made from sand, the company says.

“The push towards advancing the circular economy is a prime interest for the industry,” Amick says.
Using recycled materials instead of virgin feedstocks would lower tires’ emission profile, she says.

Solvay plans to roll out its process commercially in Leghorn, Italy, in 2024 and build a plant in the US
after. Goodyear Tire & Rubber is already using silica from rice husk ash at several of its tire factories
and aims to introduce tires made entirely of sustainable materials by 2030.

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In a similar approach, the German chemical firm Lanxess will soon make the tire antioxidant
Vulkanox HS—based on 2,2,4-trimethyl-1,2-dihydroquinoline—from renewable raw materials using a
mass-balance approach. In this method, the firm substitutes a portion of its usual fossil fuel raw
material with a renewable alternative, such as recovered and processed waste oils, and then
attributes a corresponding amount of the final product to the renewable material. “This means that
the firm will be able to assign a certain portion of its Vulkanox HS production as low carbon and
renewable or recycled,” says Jens Grühn, global marketing manager for functional tire additives at
Lanxess.

Tire makers also seek to secure greater volumes of isoprene, the monomer for natural rubber.
Currently, over 30% of a truck tire is made of natural rubber, which comes from the milky latex that
oozes from the bark of Hevea brasiliensis trees grown in tropical regions of Southeast Asia.

Various terpenes—precursors for isoprene—all with the formula (C5H8)n, can be produced via
synthetic or natural processes, says David H. Lamparelli, a polymer chemist at Spain’s Institute of
Chemical Research of Catalonia. As well as being renewable, some terpenes could improve tire
performance. “Linear terpene-based elastomers are excellent candidates to replace the common
types of resins in the formulations of tread compounds,” he says.

Credit: Continental Tire

Continental Tire hopes to use latex from the roots of a Russian variety of dandelion in its tires.

Taking a new route to natural rubber, Continental Tire is seeking to begin manufacturing tires that
include rubber from dandelion roots within the next 5–10 years. The firm has been researching
dandelion rubber in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany, since 2018. With the goal of

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security of supply, Continental aims to get 10% of its natural rubber from sources other than Hevea
by 2035.

In a similar move, Bridgestone Group and Nokian Tyres are independently seeking to make rubber
from guayule, a woody shrub native to the arid southwestern US. Nokian has begun growing guayule
in Spain. “It is a plant that does not exploit areas of any other vegetation or food production; on the
contrary, it makes use of wastelands,” says Teemu Soini, head of innovation and development for
Nokian. “If guayule succeeds as an alternative source for natural rubber, it will shorten the
transporting distance and reduce the CO2 emissions.”

W
“
e are taking a holistic
approach and looking into all
raw materials used in tires.
--- Teemu Soini, head of innovation and development, Nokian Tyres

For now, guayule will be a backup for rubber that Nokian sources from Hevea. “We do not think
guayule will replace the majority of natural rubber usage in the short term,” Soini says. Looking more
widely, the Finnish firm has a goal of making tires from at least 50% renewable and recycled
materials by 2030. “We are taking a holistic approach and looking into all raw materials used in
tires,” Soini says.

Bridgestone has spent more than $100 million on guayule. The Japanese firm aims to start using
guayule commercially by the end of the decade and to produce tires that are made from 100%
renewable materials by 2050.

Related: The pervasiveness of microplastics

In April, Bridgestone disclosed that it produced a batch of 200 tires made from 75% renewable
materials. Materials include Hevea rubber, plant-based oils and resins, silica from rice husks,
recycled steel, mass-balance-produced synthetic rubber, carbon black from recycled tires, and
various recycled-rubber chemicals.

CHEMICAL RECYCLING EMERGES

Widespread adoption of recycling technologies could have a substantial impact on the tire industry.
USTMA members collectively generated over 3 million t of CO2 emissions in 2019, the
organization says. The global tire industry produced 2.35 billion tires and consumed 47.7 million t of
raw materials in 2021, according to estimates from the market research firm Smithers. About
1 billion tires reach the end of their useful lives annually, according to a report by TIP.

When it comes to the end of a tire’s life, retreading—in which new treads are adhered to the main
structure of the tire—is a sustainable, low-energy option that tire companies continue to take, the
USTMA’s Amick says. Increasingly, though, tire companies are also interested in buying products
recovered from the chemical recycling of tires because they can be made at scale and with fewer
greenhouse gas emissions than occur with those made from fossil fuels.

Carbon black and synthetic oils recycled via a pyrolysis-based process developed by the Norwegian
firm Wastefront “have a carbon footprint at least 80% lower than that of virgin materials,” CEO
Vianney Valès says. Expected to cost $125 million and process 80,000 t of tires per year, the firm’s
first tire recycling plant is due to start up in 2025 in Sunderland, England. Earlier this month,
Wastefront agreed to sell at least 35% of the recycled carbon black from the plant to the German
rubber material firm Weber & Schaer.

I t’s great that the industry is moving

towards more sustainable materials,
but if a sustainable material still has
the same toxicity that we have from

https://cen.acs.org/environment/sustainable-tire-market/101/i17 5/11
“
5/27/23, 3:29 PM Can tires turn green?

petroleum products, how is that the

ultimate solution?
--- Molly Jacobs, senior research associate, Lowell Center for
Sustainable Production, University of Massachusetts Lowell

In 2021, Bridgestone and Michelin determined that the only way to achieve their tire recycling goals
was to mix as much recycled material with their virgin carbon black as they could, Valès says. “Since
then, the appetite for recovered carbon black has exploded. It’s now a very, very desired product,”
he says. Wastefront plans to introduce 10 tire recycling plants before 2030.

Pyrum’s demonstration plant in Dillingen, Germany, can

recycle 7,000 tires per year. The firm plans to triple
capacity at the site this year and build 15 other plants by
2030, CEO and cofounder Pascal Klein says. Across the
whole industry, “there is a potential for up to 2,000 tire
recycling plants around the world,” Klein says. “Europe
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Pyrum says each tire it recycles at the Dillingen plant
generates 2.5 L of oil, 5 kg of carbon black, and smaller
amounts of textile fibers and steel wire.

The big chemical maker BASF invested in Pyrum in 2020 and agreed to purchase pyrolysis oil from
the recycling firm. BASF is using some of the oil to make plastics for Mercedes-Benz cars. Then in a
move closing the recycling loop, Pyrum has agreed to recycle several hundred metric tons per year
of used tires from Mercedes.

Taking a different route, the technology firm LanzaTech disclosed in April 2022 that it will work
with Bridgestone to develop a process for recycling waste tires by applying synthetic biology. As
part of the project, the firms will explore using microbial fermentation to make the synthetic rubber
ingredient butadiene.

THE CLOUD OF TIRE PARTICLES

While the tire industry is already cutting a path to reduce its carbon footprint, it is still at the data-
gathering stage when it comes to addressing the impact of tire particles released onto road surfaces
and into the air. Scientists estimate that about 6 million t of TRWPs are released by tires every year,
but it remains unclear where the particles go and how they interact in the environment.

According to a 2017 report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural
Resources, a coalition of government and civil society organizations, TRWPs make up 28% of all
microplastics in the oceans. Another 2017 study, led by Pieter Jan Kole of the Open University of the
Netherlands, estimates that 5–10% of all plastics in the oceans are from tires (Int. J. Environ. Res.
Public Health, DOI: 10.3390/ijerph14101265). The World Economic Forum flags other findings in
the study—namely, that 1.5 million t of tire particles enters the US environment every year. A 2018
study undertaken on behalf of the European Commission concluded that between 50,000 and
140,000 t of TRWPs enters European surface waters each year.

WHAT'S INSIDE?
Polymers, both natural and synthetic, are the main ingredients in tires.

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Credit: C&EN/Shutterstock
Source: US Tire Manufacturers Association.

“Some studies have suggested TRWP may have impacts on certain species, while other research
has indicated that TRWP are unlikely to significantly impact human health or the environment,” TIP
says in an email. The organization has funded 18 peer-reviewed studies into the effects of TRWPs
since 2009 and is funding 7 more.
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Further studies are required in order to fill multiple
knowledge gaps. “Data on degradation is scarce and
most studies do not use realistic materials and
conditions,” concludes a review of studies on TRWPs
published in 2020 by government researchers in
Germany (Sci. Total Environ., DOI:
10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137823).

Other studies show that TRWPs have a measurable

adverse effect on the environment. In 2020, researchers
led by Zhenyu Tian at the University of Washington
Tacoma and the Center for Urban Waters linked
decades of mass deaths of coho salmon in the
Seattle area to 6PPD-​quinone (Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.abd6951). This compound is a
breakdown product of 6PPD, which tire makers use to protect rubber from degradation caused by
ozone, oxygen, mechanical stress, and heat. A study published in 2022 found that 6PPD-quinone
was toxic to rainbow trout, brook trout, arctic char, and white sturgeon (Environ. Sci. Technol. Lett.,
DOI: 10.1021/acs.estlett.2c00050).

Research by the Center for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science (CMESS) at the
University of Vienna led by environmental geoscientist Thilo Hofmann found that five compounds
originating from tire particles—one of them 6PPD-quinone—were taken up from soil by plants
including a variety of lettuce (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2022, DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.2c05660). The
researchers found via a lab-based study that if tire particles are introduced onto farmland by sewage
sludge, wind, or wastewater, pollutants from the particles can be taken up by lettuce and so could
be eaten by people.

“Tyre wear particles contain a number of organic chemicals, some of which are highly toxic,” Anya
Sherman, a PhD student at CMESS and co–first author of the study, says in a press release.

Industry representatives and independent scientists gathered at a December 2022 forum on

alternatives to 6PPD. The meeting was convened by the University of Massachusetts Lowell at the
request of the Washington State Department of Ecology. “We learned from Dr. Ed Kolodziej at the
University of Washington during the December forum that apart from two pesticides, 6PPD-quinone
is the most acutely toxic chemical for aquatic species ever evaluated,” says Molly Jacobs, senior
research associate for the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production at UMass Lowell.

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 5/27/23, 3:29 PM Can tires turn green?

Credit: Shutterstock
Measurements in stormwater-affected creeks of the US West Coast show concentrations of N-(1,3-dimethylbutyl)-N′-
phenyl-p-phenylenediamine-quinone high enough to account for mass die-offs of coho salmon, according to research
led by Zhenyu Tian and published in 2020 in the journal Science.

Removing 6PPD from tires does not appear to be an easy

option, though. Industry representatives at the forum
stated that without 6PPD, tires could fail after 160–1,600
km of use.

Substituting 6PPD with another compound presents its

own set of challenges. As a baseline, an antidegradant
cannot interfere with the other chemicals and materials
that are mixed into rubber base polymer, Erick Sharp,
CEO of Ace Laboratories, told attendees at the forum.

Nokian “is actively following the studies on this topic,”

Soini says, though he declines to comment on whether
the company is considering replacing 6PPD or other
Credit: Tyre Collective/Particle Vision
potentially problematic tire compounds. “Reliable field
Scientists estimate that 6 million metric tons of
and laboratory tests for understanding the nature, routes tire particles is released from tires annually.
of entry, and harmful impacts of the particles are The particles are a combination of tire and road
material. Typically, they are linear in shape and
required because many of the current estimates are up to about 120 μm in length.
based on mathematical models and calculations,” he
says.

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Lanxess, a major producer of 6PPD, has no drop-in replacement for the substance, but it is
developing an antioxidant with similar properties to those of 6PPD. “It takes several years to develop
a suitable alternative,” says Stephan Meese, global marketing director for functional tire additives at
Lanxess.

Substituting 6PPD is “supercomplicated,” acknowledges Joel Tickner, a professor in the Department

of Community Health and Sustainability at UMass Lowell. Many issues are involved, including safety
requirements, the need for multiple suppliers to be able to produce the alternatives, and the tire
industry’s protection of its intellectual property, he says. There are three components in a tire that
contain 6PPD, and each contains 0.5–1.5% of the compound, but it is unclear how much is getting
into the environment, Tickner says.

“A near-term option could be to design out the part of the molecule that degrades into quinone,”
Jacobs says. But such a switch isn’t the long-term solution, she says. “There are reproductive toxicity
concerns based on current literature right now with regard to 6PPD itself. This hazard should also be
designed out of future alternatives,” she says.

Related: Goodyear introduces soybean tires

The Washington State Department of Ecology sponsored a toxicity screening of 6PPD along with
nine alternatives, most of which are p-phenylenediamines (PPDs). All the PPDs evaluated present a
hazard to human or environmental health or both, Jacobs says. Less is known about the toxicity of
antidegradants beyond PPDs, she adds.

The industry may have to address 6PPD’s effect on the environment sooner rather than later since
Washington is legally obligated to protect the fish for Indigenous peoples. “It’s challenging to change
materials in tires, but we are up for that challenge around 6PPD and actively working to assess
potential alternatives,” the USTMA’s Amick says.

TIP says in an email that it supports investigating TRWPs’ effects on human and environmental
health. The group is currently funding research into the effects of 6PPD and 6PPD-quinone on fish.

Other chemicals in tire particles that pose toxicity concerns include zinc, which is used to vulcanize
rubber, and aromatic hydrocarbons. “Many of them are carcinogens when they get released,”
Tickner says.

I
“
f society doesn’t push to reduce the
nasty materials out of rubber, then it
won’t happen.
--- Marc Masen, mechanical engineer, Imperial College London

Further studies into tires’ impact are planned. A non-peer-reviewed report that was published in
February by a group of scientists at Imperial College London indicates that TRWPs could pose a risk
to human health. The Imperial scientists are now seeking funding for an in-depth, multidisciplinary
study to determine the extent of tire particle pollution.

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Independent scientists and the tire industry agree on one thing: making a tire that does not shed
particles while meeting performance requirements—​including stopping and providing comfort,
durability, and energy efficiency—may not be possible. But there is “a lot of legroom” for replacing
some substances in tires so they are less harmful, says Marc Masen, a mechanical engineer with
expertise in tire abrasion and wear and one of the authors of the Imperial study.

The study calls for legislation to reduce the effects of tire

particles rather than allow tire companies to develop benign tire compounds at their own pace. “If
society doesn’t push to reduce the nasty materials out of rubber, then it won’t happen,” Masen says.
“There has not been any legislation driving the use of benign chemicals in tires, and as a result the
tire industry’s interests have been limited to grip and energy efficiency.”

The tire industry rejects Masen’s assertions. This is “not at all” the case, the USTMA’s Amick says.
“Our industry is fully committed to sustainability, including sustainability of the materials that we’re
looking at and using in our products,” she says. When the 2020 coho salmon study was published,
within 2 weeks, the USTMA asked the California Department of Toxic Substances Control to add
6PPD in tires to its priority product work plan, which would require the tire industry to assess
alternatives, Amick says. But the industry has yet to identify viable alternatives to 6PPD.

In the meantime, the USTMA is advocating for measures to mitigate the effects of 6PPD-quinone in
waterways, including the use of porous pavement to trap tire particles and the application of best
management practices for stormwater.

Removing potentially problematic compounds such as 6PPD from tires is complex, and
manufacturing tires that perform the broad range of tasks required of them without releasing any
TRWPs may be impossible. While the substantial environmental footprint of tires at the production
and disposal phases could shrink markedly in the coming years, it’s unclear what actions will be
taken relating to TRWP pollution.

“It’s great that the industry is moving towards more sustainable materials, but if a sustainable
material still has the same toxicity that we have from petroleum products, how is that the ultimate
solution?” Jacobs asks. “More sustainable does not mean safer.”

Chemical & Engineering News

ISSN 0009-2347
Copyright © 2023 American Chemical Society

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