On July 25, the 17th Annual Corporate Social Responsibility Conference and Results Conference hosted by relevant institutions was held in Guangzhou.
As the only tire manufacturer on the list, Linglong Tire has been awarded the title of ‘Outstanding Responsible Enterprise in 2024’.
2024 is the year of continuous breakthroughs in Linglong Tire’s sustainable development.
The production base in Europe has officially been put into mass production. This “four new” factory with “green, clean, civilized and lean” as its core deeply integrates artificial intelligence, industrial robots and big data technology to build an intelligent and efficient production system and set a green and smart manufacturing benchmark for the industry.
In the same year, the company launched revolutionary 79% sustainable material environmentally friendly tires, using itaconate bio-based rubber and recyclable carbon black, significantly reducing dependence on petrochemical raw materials, achieving carbon reduction throughout the product life cycle, and opening up a new path for sustainable development of the industry.
On July 30, in the Linglong Tire production workshop, Li Yanguo, head of the formulation design department of Linglong Tire Global Research Institute, said: ‘Traditional rubber tire production relies heavily on petrochemicals, and sustainable materials account for only about 30%.
It took Linglong Tire 20 years to go from 30% to 79%.
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my country’s oil and natural rubber are highly dependent on foreign countries, and serious import dependence will affect the safety of the tire industry chain.
Linglong Tire has been focusing on the replacement of petroleum-based raw materials since 2004. After the country proposed the “dual carbon” strategy, the company’s green and low-carbon research was put on the fast track.
Carbon black is an important reinforcing agent in rubber tires, which can improve the wear resistance and tear resistance of tires.
Under traditional processes, carbon black is mainly produced by incomplete combustion or thermal decomposition of carbonaceous materials such as coal, oil, and natural gas under oxygen-deficient conditions.
Linglong Tire reduces carbon emissions by recycling carbon black from waste tires.
Recycling carbon black from waste tires has a certain carbon reduction effect, but Linglong Tire is not satisfied yet, so R&D researchers have turned their attention to bio-based materials.
After repeated trials, Li Yanguo’s team finally applied carbon black produced from pine oil and rapeseed oil to tire production.
‘Pine oil and rapeseed oil are relatively expensive, are there any more cost-effective raw materials?
’ The R&D team found that silica is a key additive in tire production. Its main component is hydrated silica, which has properties such as tear resistance, high temperature resistance, and aging resistance.
Silicon is the main component of sand, but the industrial process of extracting silicon from sand also consumes a lot of energy.
In order to obtain “greener” silicon, R&D personnel conducted repeated comparative studies on more than a dozen crop straws such as rice, wheat, and corn, and finally determined to use rice husk as the raw material for extracting silica.
The silicon content in rice husk reaches 15%, making it a cheap and easily available raw material.
Wastewater from the papermaking process contains lignin.
Lignin can improve the durability and tear resistance of tires. The Linglong Tire team processed it and applied it to the tires, which not only reduced pollution but also lowered the carbon value of the tires.
It is relatively easy to go from 30% to 50%, but the further back, the more difficult it becomes.
In the end, every 1% improvement is a huge challenge.
Successful material development is only half the battle.
Increasing the ratio regardless of cost or performance does not make commercial sense.
Turning raw materials into high-performance tires is another major challenge.
After hundreds of tests, Linglong Tire has finally achieved the ultimate in tire performance using 79% sustainable materials, and many indicators even exceed traditional tires.
Test results showed that the tire reached the highest A rating of the EU tire label in terms of wet braking, rolling resistance and noise.
Linglong Tire is cooperating with many domestic automobile manufacturers to develop new models. Soon, more energy-saving and lower-carbon tires will be applied to new vehicles.
Currently, Linglong tires are exported to 173 countries around the world, with a total of nearly 300 million tires supplied by car companies. It provides supporting services to 8 of the world’s top 10 car companies. It has ranked first in China’s tire supply and the world’s first sales volume of tires for new energy vehicles for many consecutive years.
‘We put technology first, and Linglong Tire maintains an annual R&D investment ratio of 3% to 5% of revenue to achieve the internationalization of our marketing, R&D, and branding and form world-class competitiveness.’ Looking to the future, Linglong Tire Vice President Sun Songtao expressed with confidence.
