Soybean oil will reduce dependency on petroleum: Goodyear

Goodyear, as part of its efforts to reduce petroleum usage in tyre manufacturing and in turn saving the environment, has discovered that petroleum-based oil can be replaced by soybean oil. Petroleum is a major component in the tyre manufacturing process, for every 100kg of rubber used 3.5kg of oil is also used. Over a billion tyres are manufactured worldwide every year, and this means that a lot of oil is used too.

"Goodyear is committed to caring for the environment and communities, and use of soybean oil is proving to be another way to accomplish this goal," Jean-Claude Kihn, Goodyear's chief technical officer said.

Using soybean oil in the tyre manufacturing process has added advantages other than saving the environment, says Goodyear. Researchers at Goodyear’s innovation centre at Ohio, USA have found that tyres made using soybean oil can potentially increase tread life by 10 per cent and reduce the tyre maker’s use of petroleum-based oil by up to seven million gallons each year.

The company also found that soybean oil is a better mixer than petroleum-based oil, which will make the tyre manufacturing process more efficient and reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. 

Prototype tyres built by the company will be tested at company's proving grounds in the coming months. If the tests are successful, tyres made of soybean oil will appear in the market by as early as 2015 says the company.