Bringing a Renewable Aspect to Rubber

June 21, 2011

Rubber is a mainstream durable product that enjoys a relatively full lifecycle: products are manufactured, consumed and recycled. The manufacturing of rubber products generally involves the rubber itself, carbon black and a wide variety of other additives and fillers that are incorporated into a finished product to achieve the desired performance. Through a newly formed partnership, Elevance will validate and build application knowledge around the use of renewable processing oil (replacing petroleum-based product) in several rubber applications. This presents an opportunity to find ways to maintain or improve performance while increasing the sustainability and minimizing environmental impact of rubber manufacturing, which is important given that more than 21 million tons of rubber are used annually.