The tire industry is one of the world’s largest consumers of petroleum products. An average car tire consists of some 25 to 30 percent of materials derived directly from petroleum. Continental wants to reduce that percentage significantly by replacing fossil oil with renewable raw materials, including used frying fat. <\/p>\n
The idea is simpler than you think. Used cooking oil, which would otherwise be treated as waste or reused in a less useful way, is refined into so-called bio-based oils. Those oils then serve as replacements for the petroleum-based plasticizers and fillers in the tire’s rubber compound. <\/p>\n
Continental applies a so-called mass balance principle. This means that recycled cooking oil is fed into the production process along with other raw materials. A certification system keeps track of what percentage of the final tire consists of renewable resources. <\/p>\n
The beauty is that the tire’s performance does not suffer. Continental claims that tires with bio-based oils offer the same grip, wear resistance and rolling resistance as their all-fossil counterparts. So as a driver, you’ll notice literally nothing from the switch, except that you’ll drive with a slightly more relaxed conscience. <\/p>\n
The use of frying fat is not an isolated trick. Continental has set itself the goal of incorporating fully sustainable materials in all of their tires by 2050 at the latest. Currently, the company sits at about 15 to 20 percent renewable materials per tire, depending on the model. In addition to recycled cooking oil, Continental is also experimenting with dandelion rubber (from Russian dandelions, no joke), recycled PET from plastic bottles and rice kafas as an alternative to silica. All these innovations together should step by step increase the proportion of renewable and recycled materials. <\/p>\n
Continental, by the way, is not the only one working on this. Competitors such as Michelin, Goodyear and Bridgestone are working on similar initiatives. Michelin is even aiming for 100 percent sustainable materials by 2050, as is Continental. The tire industry as a whole is under increasing pressure from the EU to reduce its carbon footprint. The European Commission is working on stricter regulations around the circularity of tires, including requirements for the use of recycled and renewable materials. That legislation could come into effect as early as around 2028 and will significantly change the playing field. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From fry to car tire The tire industry is one of the world's largest consumers of petroleum products. An average…","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":162780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-162815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-car-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n