Posted 05/31/2018 11:24:14 PM
MONTREAL (CANADA), May 31 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The French tire manufacturer Michelin has drawn up a strategic plan that contemplates that all of its tires will be manufactured with 80% sustainable materials by 2048, compared to 28% currently.
The French company announced during the world summit on sustainable mobility ‘Movin’on by Michelin’, which takes place in Montreal (Canada) from June 30 to May 1, which is investing to increase the content of sustainable materials in its tires .
Currently, Michelin tires are manufactured with 28% sustainable materials. 26% corresponds to products of biological origin, such as natural rubber or sunflower oil, and 2% to recycled materials, such as steel.
In addition, for 30 years, the company also aims to ensure that 100% of the tires for future vehicles are recycled. The global tire recovery rate is 70% and the recycling rate is 50%, according to Michelin data.
The firm aims to achieve this goal through research programs of biological origin, such as ‘Biobutterfly’, through collaboration with other partners and through the advanced technologies and materials that are being developed in these associations.
SUSTAINABLE SAVINGS
If successful, Michelin estimates that it will have annual savings equivalent to 33 million barrels of oil, the total energy consumption of one month in France, 65,000 million kilometers driven by a sedan and 291 million kilometers that accumulate among all the cars that they circulate in Europe.
Michelin launched the ‘Biobutterfly’ program in 2012 together with Axens and IFP Energies Nouvelles to create synthetic elastomers from biomass, such as wood, straw or beet. Recently, it has also acquired the company Lehigh, specialist in high technology of micronized rubber powder obtained from recycled tires.
“This acquisition demonstrates Michelin’s strategic determination to capitalize on its expertise in high-tech materials, in areas that go beyond the tire field, particularly by promoting the use of innovative recycled materials from tires, in a variety of ways. industrial sectors not related to tires, “said Christophe Rahier, director of the Michelin High Technology Materials Business Line.
Lehigh operates the micronized rubber powder (MRP) manufacturing plant, a “sustainable” raw material that replaces petroleum-derived materials and reduces costs by up to 50%, the largest in the world in Tucker, Georgia, with a Annual production capacity of 54,000 tons.
Last year, in the first edition of the ‘Movin’on’, Michelin unveiled its concept of the Vision tire, an airless tire made of products of biological origin and recycled and with a biodegradable tread that can be renewed with a 3D printer.