University of Delaware Researchers Look to Make Tires Made from Plants and Wood

July 31, 2017

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by Scott Goss (The News Journal/Delaware Online) ... Researchers at the Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation say they have discovered a highly efficient way to convert plant matter into a chemical used to make everything from car tires to Lego blocks.

“It’s still early in the research but what we’ve seen so far looks very promising,” said Dionisios Vlachos, a UD professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and director of the federally-funded research center.

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The team of scientists – which includes professors from the University of Minnesota and the University of Massachusetts – has developed a process for turning sugars extracted from switchgrass, wood chips and other biomass into butadiene, a chemical intermediate used to produce synthetic rubber and hard plastics.

The technique they unveiled this spring in the American Chemical Society’s scientific journal Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering could prove to be of particular value to major tire makers, such as Goodyear, Michelin and Bridgestone.

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Ethylene, which is used to make other plastics, now can be made from shale gas without also creating butadiene.

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Using $30 million in federal funding, the Catalysis Center’s specific goal is to develop innovative ways to turn biomass into bioproducts and fuel. READ MORE

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