Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations has unveiled a new concept tire containing more than 10% soybean oil at the Farm Progress Show, Aug. 28-30, 2012, in Boone, Iowa.
The 900-lb. farm tire is marketed under the Firestone brand of agricultural tires and contains approximately 90 pounds of soy oil. The typical application for the 800/70R38 Radial Deep Tread 23 tire being displayed is on large four-wheel-drive tractors where eight tires are used.
“The soybean oil has replaced all the different petroleum-based processing oils used in the tire’s compounds,” said Tom Rodgers, director of sales & marketing at Bridgestone Americas. “Based on the progress of the project, we expect to begin incorporating soy oil into some of our agricultural tires by early 2013. Our goal is to have soy oil as a component in all of our agriculture tires by the end of 2013.”
Through soybean processing, one bushel of soybeans yields approximately 11 pounds of soy oil. The concept tire on display used roughly eight bushels of soybeans to yield the 90 pounds of soy oil.
