The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company supports the development and use of sustainable materials in its products. Over the last 5+ years, Goodyear has had significant success with the development of soybean oil technologies and the use of them in key tire product lines. To add on to the successes in polymer development using soybean oil and use of soybean oil in tire compounds, a project for the production of carbon black from soybean oil feedstock was initiated. Carbon black is an essential ingredient in tires, providing increased strength, tear resistance, and abrasion resistance, among other performance attributes. This goal of this project was develop a commodity tire-grade carbon black produced from soybean oil feedstock that matches current Goodyear specifications and compound/tire performance. During the course of this project the carbon black supplier that Goodyear will collaborate with was identified and legal agreements and a statement of work (SOW) were finalized. The upfront technical assessment of the concept to produce ASTM tire-grade carbon black from soybean oil, production modeling, product selection, and analysis of soybean oil parameters pertinent for carbon black production were completed within the scope of the FY22 project. In the FY23 project the production of pilot-scale quantities of the desired carbon black from 100% soybean oil feedstock was completed. The production of the sample carbon black material resulted in Goodyear completing multiple lab-scale compound mixes and physical property evaluations to better understand the performance of the carbon black produced from soybean oil versus a traditional control sample, in multiple applications. The pilot-scale production and subsequent lab compound evaluations proved that the selected grade of carbon black can be produced from 100% soybean oil successfully and that the lab indicators for tire performance, in multiple, critical applications, can be matched to the equivalent grade produced from petroleum-based feedstock.

This project represents a significant potential benefit to US soybean farmers due to the high volume of tire-grade carbon black produced and used in the United States. The selected grade of carbon black is a high-volume, industry standard, commodity grade of carbon black that is critical to the performance of many tires on the market. For every kilogram of carbon black produced roughly 1.7-2 kilograms of oil feedstock is required. The use of soybean oil as the feedstock is expected to result in slightly lower yield, at least initially, resulting in an even higher need for soybean oil compared to petroleum-based feedstock for the same amount of carbon black production. If you consider that the average consumer tire is about 15 wt.% carbon black, the volume potential is quite large. At this stage of the project we are working to technically prove this concept and start the initial stages of scaling the production with a carbon black supplier but due to demands for more sustainable products and the ease of adoption across multiple existing product lines (assuming performance equivalency can be achieved), this would represent a tremendous opportunity for carbon black manufacturers, tire manufacturers, and US soybean farmers, alike.