BRUSSELS—Partnerships are critical to closing the loop in tire circularity, as evidenced by the collaborations being established between major tire manufacturers, chemical firms and tire pyrolysis companies.
As such, Bridgestone EMEA will join Fatima, Portugal-based Grupo BB&G and Milan-based Versalis in "creating a closed-loop ecosystem" for recycling ELTs.
The three organizations signed an agreement to establish the partnership Sept. 2.
"At Bridgestone, we have set a goal of working with 100-percent sustainable materials by 2050, and recycling and reusing products is an important part of this," said Laurent Dartoux, group president for Bridgestone EMEA and global sustainability initiative lead for Bridgestone Corp. "The partnership with industry leaders Grupo BB&G and Versalis to research, implement and overcome the challenge of recycling tires will contribute toward this target."
Dartoux said the collaboration supports Bridgestone's E8 commitment, along with its global EverTire initiative, which focuses on sustainable ways to maximize the lifecycle of tires.
According to Bridgestone, feedstock ELTs will be pyrolyzed by BB&G, which has a commercial tire pyrolysis oil plant in Fatima that became operational July 24.
The TPO will be sent to Versalis in San Donato Milanese, which will convert it into "circular elastomers that Bridgestone will use to create a first batch of tires in early 2025," according to the world's second-largest tire maker.
"In line with our strategy for circularity, we have developed lower carbon solutions which perfectly fit in the value chain we've established with our industry partners Bridgestone EMEA and Grupo BB&G," Versalis CEO Adriano Alfani said. "This agreement aims at delivering maximum value to our customers and an innovative boost to the tire industry, furthering our commitment toward a more sustainable mobility."
For its part, Versalis, a subsidiary of the major Italian chemical firm Eni, also is looking to diversify its feedstock, using both renewable sources and secondary raw materials.
Through the partnership, Versalis will look to integrate BB&G's TPO into its own Balance portfolio, an ISCC PLUS-certified product range.
The elastomers that are compounded using the recycled TPO are expected to be comparable to those obtained from traditional feedstock, according to Bridgestone.
The partnership will leverage BB&G's thermomechanical process of pyrolysis, which has led to BB&G's first commercially scalable plant—a panacea of sorts for startup TPO and recovered carbon black companies.
