On November 9, Goodyear Tire & Rubber announced that its strategic partner, Yihai Kerry, has completed the expansion of its plant, significantly increasing the production capacity of rice hull ash silica.
The husk ash remaining after the husk is burned is generally 20% of the mass of the husk. The main component of rice husk ash is silicon dioxide, whose content is as high as 87% -97%. Goodyear conducted long-term tests at the Innovation Center in Akron and found that the performance and quality of silica extracted from rice husk ash is comparable to that of other sources.
Goodyear signed a rice husk ash silica supply agreement with Yihai Grain and Oil Industry Co., Ltd. in June 2015. Goodyear later used Yihai Kerry's products to replace traditional silica in some passenger car tires produced at its Pulandian plant, and began selling such tires in China in 2016.
Silicon dioxide has been used as a reinforcing agent for the manufacture of tire composites. Compared with traditional tire reinforcements such as carbon black, silicon dioxide reduces the rolling resistance of tires, and lower rolling resistance helps improve the Fuel economy. In addition, it can effectively improve the wet grip performance of the tire. In addition, the production of silica from rice husk ash is of great significance for protecting the environment. First, removing rice husk ash from wastewater helps rice producers better deal with serious environmental problems. Second, the energy needed to convert rice husk ash to silicon dioxide is much less than that for sand.