NEW YORK (Commodity Online): It may be possible that, in coming years, motorists will be travelling on the first eco-firendly tyres as the biotechnology and tyre firms are partnering together to obtain the raw materials from sugar instead of from rubber tree or petroleum.
According to Melody M. Bomgardner, Senior Business Editor of American Chemical Society’s weekly newsmagazine,Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), The rising prices and tight supply of natural and synthetic rubber used in manufacturing of tyres is the main reason for the need of sustainable, renewable, raw material sources, reported www.azocleantech.com.
Michelin and Goodyear have joined with biotechnology firms to engineer microbes genetically that generate the major raw materials from sugar for rubber.
Prototype tyres have already been created by Goodyear from rubber produced out of sugar.
Bomgardner also added that firms believe sugar will protect them from synthetic and natural component scarcity when “sweet”, eco-friendly tires will be launched.
