Bridgestone Americas enters tyre recycling agreement
By Will Hall - 28th May 2022
From Left to Right, Nizar Trigui, CTO CEO, Paolo Ferrari, BSA CEO, Jennifer Holmgren, LanzaTech CEO, Craig Schneider, BSA CSO
USA – Bridgestone Americas Inc, based in Nashville, Tennessee, has entered into an agreement with LanzaTech NZ Inc, a carbon capture specialist based in Skokie, Illinois, to co-develop an end-of-life recycling process for used tyres. The firms state they will address the issue by converting end-of-life tyres into new raw materials and will also explore the creation of sustainable synthetic rubber that does not rely on petrochemicals.
Applying LanzaTech’s carbon capture and gas fermentation process to end-of-life tyres yields sustainably produced chemicals, such as ethanol, that can be converted to materials such as PET for packaging, polyester yarn, and surfactants used in consumer home goods like laundry detergent. In addition, Bridgestone and LanzaTech will jointly explore opportunities to co-develop proprietary microbe technology to produce more efficient pathways to produce butadiene, a key ingredient in new tyre production.
