22 September 2014
ABOUT BRIDEGSTONE AMERICA, INC.
DETAILS
Bridgestone Americas, Inc. (BSA)
is one step closer to its long-term environmental goal of
developing a new, domestic and commercially-viable source
for natural rubber.
BSA, a subsidiary of
the world’s largest tire and rubber manufacturer,
Bridgestone Corporation,
today announced the grand opening of its
Biorubber Process Research Center
in Mesa, Arizona.*
*This project is executed by
Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, LLC, a BSA subsidiary,
in collaboration with Bridgestone Corporation.
Bridgestone Corporation is providing
the funding and strategic insights for the project,
while the Bridgestone Americas team is responsible for
operating the pilot farm and process research facility.
The 10-acre research and innovation campus
is the center of Bridgestone’s efforts to
extract natural rubber from guayule,
a shrub native to the southwestern U.S.
At a ribbon cutting celebration this morning,
Bridgestone said it expects to
have preliminary guayule rubber samples produced
at the Biorubber Process Research Center
within the next month.
Guayule rubber
has qualities almost identical to those of natural rubber
harvested from hevea rubber trees,
making it a potentially valuable source for tire-grade rubber
in commercial applications.
Currently, more than 90 percent of
the world’s natural rubber supply comes from
hevea rubber trees grown in southeast Asia.
Bridgestone will supply the Biorubber Process Research Center
with biomass for rubber production from
guayule
grown on its 281-acre Agro Operations Research Farm
in nearby Eloy, Ariz.
The Agro Operations site includes
* two greenhouses,
* an equipment storage building and
* a main research and laboratory building.
Bridgestone employs a team of scientists at the farm
who research the genetic improvement of guayule,
optimizing agronomic practices for growing the crop and
supplying biomass for the Biorubber Process Research Center.
Guayule rubber produced at
the Biorubber Process Research Center
will be sent to Bridgestone’s technical centers
in both Akron, Ohio and Tokyo, Japan.
At those facilities, engineers will work to
optimize rubber performance within
Bridgestone’s product line and
explore the full potential for next-generation tires.
Bill Niaura,
Director of New Business Development,
Bridgestone Americas, Inc.
“The opening of
the Bridgestone Biorubber Process Research Center
is a significant milestone in Bridgestone’s journey
to develop a new and domestic source of natural rubber,”
“Through this innovation project and others like it,
Bridgestone is positioning itself to meet
the constant, anticipated growth in demand
for natural rubber, while also moving closer to
achieving its long-term vision of manufacturing products
from raw materials that are
fully renewable and sustainable by 2050.”
BRIDGESTONE' PROJECT ON GUAYULE ON 8 MARCH 2012
WWW.CHEMWINFO.COM BY KHUN PHICHAI
