Goodyear is the 2015 winner of the Environmental Award presented by FEDIL, the Luxembourg Business Federation, in the category “resource Efficiency” with its Rice Husk Ash Silica Innovation. Silica is a tyre tread reinforcing agent used in Goodyear’s high performance tyres.
“Goodyear’s Rice Husk Ash Silica has several advantages for the environment. It reduces the amount of ash waste going into landfills and the silica conversion process requires significantly less energy. In addition our tyres are more fuel efficient, thus reduce a vehicle’s CO2 output and at the same time provides high tyre wet grip so road safety is enhanced”, said Carlos Cipollitti, general director of the Goodyear Innovation Center in Colmar-Berg.
Traditional tyre silica is made from sand and this conversion requires a significant amount of energy and very high temperatures. Rice Husk Ash Silica however, is derived from ash generated by burning rice husk, the outside of a rice kernel and requires significantly less energy.
Each year, more than 700 million tons of rice are harvested worldwide, according to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, and disposing of the rice husks is an environmental challenge. Rice husks often are burned to generate electricity and its ash waste is shipped to landfills.
Over the last three years, Goodyear engineers in the Innovation centers in Luxembourg and the United States have worked hard to make this technology viable and have developed a sustainable and environmentally-friendly solution to replace traditional silica with silica derived from rice husk ash.
This prestigious award was presented by Robert Dennewald, president of Fedil, and Camille Gira, State Secretary for Sustainable Development and Infrastructure, to Romain Hansen, Global Director Technology Projects for Goodyear, on behalf of the whole development team.
