From Tire Review
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Bridgestone Corp. has joined a growing legion of tiremakers announcing specific efforts aimed at reducing their reliance on cost-volatile oil and natural rubber.
Bridgestone said it plans to conduct research in the U.S. to develop natural rubber alternatives, and will focus on growing guayule plants "as a commercially viable, renewable source of high-quality natural rubber."
Bridgestone Americas said its parent company is looking for land in the southwestern U.S. to establish a guayule farm and a process research center, which it hopes to have launched by the end of 2012.
“The facility is expected to be fully operational in 2014. Trial rubber production should start in 2015,” Bridgestone stated in the announcement.
A perennial shrub, guayule is native to parts of the southwestern U.S. and Mexico. Decades ago, the then-Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. – and other major U.S. tiremakers – experimented with using the plant to produce natural rubber, but they were met with limited success.
On the last day of February, Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. announced a joint development program with Yulex to develop guayule-derived natural rubber. And, with the opening of the Geneva International Motor Show, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. reaffirmed its efforts with DuPont Industrial Biosciences to develop BioIsoprene, a bio-based alternative for petroleum-derived isoprene.
