Material supply chain moves toward sustainability

HILTON HEAD, S.C.—Many of the world's manufacturers—including a large number in the rubber industry—have voiced bold ambitions for 2050.

Specifically, they are aiming for both carbon neutrality and production of goods from fully sustainable feedstocks. But with those lofty goals also comes commitments to meet certain milestones along the way, and to do so in a transparent manner.

That was the message delivered at the recent Clemson University Tire Industry Conference in Hilton Head by Bill Niaura, Bridgestone Americas Inc. director of sustainable materials and circular economy.

In his talk, aptly titled "Radically Re-Thinking Our Raw Materials Supply Chain," he said this basically means two things.

First, it entails decarbonizing the rubber industry's manufacturing infrastructure, including the use of green energy, carbon capture and storage processes, and Industry 4.0 concepts to take advantage of intelligence and evolving IT practices.

Second, manufacturers will have to shift where they get their carbon from, moving from the petroleum-based feedstocks of today to bio-based and recycled feedstocks in the future.

"We must radically rethink what we use to make tires," Niaura said. "If you look at our raw material sourcing today, we have three major buckets: renewable, bio-based and green; petroleum-based; and mined."

Today, the only truly renewable raw material in use is the hevea natural rubber, mostly sourced from growers in Southeast Asia. There is much dependence on petroleum-based materials, including for synthetic rubber, carbon black and silica. Mining also plays a key role, he said, helping to supply reinforcements such as fibers and steel, along with chemical agents like zinc, oil and resins.

As the rubber industry moves to its future supply chain, that distribution will look much different, according to Niaura. Besides hevea, future natural rubber sources will include such alternatives as guayule and dandelions.

Synthetic rubber will be both bio-based and bio-processed, while fillers will include recovered carbon black, virgin carbon black from recycled and bio oils, and rice husk silica. In addition, he said reinforcements will include bio and recycled fibers, and recycled steel, with chemical agents sourced from recycled zinc and bio oils and resins.

But these aren't necessarily technologies that will suddenly appear two decades down the road, according to the Bridgestone executive. The transition is happening now.

"There are a lot of technologies in between that can be deployed," Niaura said. "A lot of them are from existing industry suppliers we work with today. A lot of them are startups and new technology companies that are innovating."

Some of the know-how involves direct tire-to-tire sourcing, such as ground rubber, micronization and devulcanization. It also will be aided by advancing technology enabled by a more mature end-of-life tire ecosystem.

"Tire-to-tire relies on putting together pieces," he said. "It's collection of end-of-life tires, the processing of those and connecting the supply chain back to tire manufacturing."

Niaura added that recovered carbon black already is happening, attracting a lot of activity and investment, not to mention cooperation in the industry to develop standards for rCB. And pyrolysis and soybean oils used as feedstocks is recycling carbon into feedstocks that look like petroleum so they can be processed with existing infrastructure.

Nature supplies a good portfolio of materials such as rice husk silica and soybean oil that can be used directly in tires, but with one caveat: they must not compete with food production, he said.

Fermentation can be used as an aid for such needs as fibers and as next-generation building blocks for synthetic rubber. "In my mind I think there is a whole palate of materials that can be produced through fermentation," Niaura said.

Bridgestone itself is involved in a variety of partnerships that will look to help the tire and rubber industry re-think the future supply chain.

One was started early this year with Eneos Corp., where the two Japanese-based firms will work to develop chemical recycling technologies that look at "applying tire pyrolysis with more of a spin of producing oil feedstocks that are more suitable for using in traditional refining processes, thus enabling renewable synthetic rubber," according to Niaura.

Another recent agreement is with LanzaTech NZ Inc. to pursue end-of-life tire recycling technologies that can be part of a truly circular economy.

Niaura said in his talk that what the rubber industry faces isn't necessarily a technology limitation, but a variety of other speed bumps that include scarce resources, competition with other industries, infrastructure-related costs, and finding a proper value in the marketplace for the new tools and know-how.

Plastics, for example, have a very public problem to solve. "Garbage is a very visible problem for players in that space," he said. "They have the ability to pay more than us for the same resources, for the same feedstocks.

And costs related to infrastructure will be hurdles that must be faced in the near and long terms.

"Technology is great. Commercialization of technology is as difficult or more difficult than technology invention itself," Niaura said. "We're talking chemical feedstocks. When the chemical industry operates at scale, we're talking projects that are hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars in investment costs."

Managing the transition will be the real challenge as the rubber industry moves toward its lofty ambitions in the future. And determining the proper value can be difficult, particularly when dealing with scarce resources.

"When things are scarce, producers of the scarce materials understand that they're scarce," the Bridgestone official said. "They're a profit-seeking entity, so they're going to try to determine where is the best place to place that technology. Plastics are good. The apparel industry is a good place to look, as these are industries with very public problems."

The tire industry may be a bit off the radar, he added, but the situation with end-of-life tires may bring it more into focus as an area posing both a challenge and opportunity.

So placing the proper value in the marketplace flows from the supplier side to the manufacturer, and ultimately drives what tire customers—either OEMs or end users—are willing to pay.

Niaura said the tire industry has done some of the easy things related to moving toward future supply chain goals. The sector has recognized sustainability as an attribute that can be accounted for.

But there are different priorities at different levels in the industry, some with more generic aims and others that are more specific.

"At the corporate level, we want to be producing a renewable product," he said. "We want to be carbon neutral, and we want to be using fully sustainable feedstocks"

At the product level, however, new materials must be judged on traditional performance criteria such as traction, rolling resistance and tread life. "More importantly, as those things go to market, the more you get the more you pay," he said. "Establishing that value in the marketplace will be what enables that sort of trickle-down to (be able to) compete for scarce resources at the supplier level."

One area where the rubber and other chemical-related industries is at a disadvantage, Niaura said, is when it comes to government incentives, which influence where scarce resources are directed. There are incentives in place for firms that produce ethanol as a transportation fuel, sustainable aviation fuel, renewable diesel and renewable natural gas.

There are none, however, for low carbon, sustainable chemicals or materials, he said. The rubber industry also must keep in mind that as transportation moves away from petrochemicals as a fuel, a lot of the raw materials used to produce SR are co-products or by-products of other material production, so supplies of these feedstocks will begin to dwindle.

But while there are hurdles that must be cleared, Niaura sees a bright future as rubber and tire manufacturers move toward a world of sustainable supply and carbon neutrality. It's really a matter of looking at the perspective of the players at each point of the supply chain, understanding the value of the new technology, leveraging existing infrastructure to make sustainable materials, all while keeping an eye on the longer-term transition.

"The post-2030 vision is where investments get made into new technology at a scale that really competes with and replaces traditional petrochemical processes," he said.