Green Car Advisor
Tires
July 29, 2009
A study by wood-science researchers at Oregon State University concludes that microcrystalline cellulose -- a product that can be made easily from almost any type of plant fibers -- could replace silica as a reinforcing filler in rubber tires.
Use of the material was found to reduce the cost and amount of energy needed to produce the tire as well as decrease their rolling resistance, which increased fuel economy, the researchers found. Tires containing microcrystalline cellulose also proved to be more resistant to heat buildup and grippier on wet roads.
"We were surprised at how favorable the results were for the use of this material," said Kaichang Li, an associate professor of wood science and engineering in the OSU College of Forestry, said in a statement. Li conducted the research with graduate student Wen Bai.
"This could lead to a new generation of automotive tire technology, one of the first fundamental changes to come around in a long time," Li said.
Cellulose fiber has been used as reinforcement in some types of rubber and automotive products, such as belts, hoses and insulation, but never in tires, where the preferred fillers are carbon black and silica.
Carbon black, however, is made from increasingly expensive oil, and the processing of silica is energy-intensive.
In their study, the researchers replaced up to 12 percent of the silica used in conventional tires with microcrystalline cellulose, which is produced inexpensively using one of nature's most abundant natural polymers (cellulose). Cellulose comprises about 50 percent of plant matter.
The replacement decreased the amount of energy needed to compound the rubber composite, improved the heat resistance of the product, and retained its tensile strength.
Traction is always a key issue with tire performance, and the study showed that the traction of the new product was comparable to existing rubber tire technology on wet roads.
And at high temperatures such as those found on blacktop in summer, the partial replacement of silica with microcrystalline cellulose decreased the rolling resistance of the tire, which made the tires more fuel-efficient.
Li said more research is needed to confirm the long-term durability of tires made with partial replacement of silica.
Research into ways to replace silica in tires has been under way for years as their manufacturers seek alternatives to petroleum-based tires. Earlier this year reported that Yokohama Tire Corp. was using oil extracted from orange rinds in its ADVAN brand of ultra-high-performance street and racing tires.
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- Scott Doggett July 29, 2009, 11:11 AM
- Categories:
- Fuel Economy, Tires
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June 23, 2009
Borrowing an idea from California's air-quality regulators
, federal authorities today proposed creation of a label (pictured
) that would, for the first time, include information about a tire's impact on fuel economy and global warming.
Under the U.S. Transportation Department proposal, tire manufacturers would be required to affix such labels to replacement tires sold in the United States.
The label is, we think, a good idea. The 240 million passenger cars and light trucks in the U.S. consume about 135 billion gallons of motor fuel annually.
Finding ways to reduce this energy consumption should be a national goal for reasons ranging from ensuring economic and national security to improving local air quality and reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.
As you can see from the proposed label, consumers would also receive information about the tire's performance characteristics as well as their "greeness."
The proposal requires tire manufacturers to label their replacement tires for fuel efficiency (via rolling-resistance tests), safety (via traction tests), and durability (via treadwear-life tests) based on test procedures specified by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
A measurement of traction is intended to indicate a tire's ability to stop on wet pavement. Thus, traction is one metric that corresponds to safety. A treadwear rating measures a tire's wear rate compared with that of control tires. Treadwear life, therefore, corresponds to a measure of durability.
Comparing this new proposed label across potential replacement tires would enable consumers to see how different replacement tires can affect the fuel economy they are getting from their vehicle.
The label would also allow consumers to see the tradeoff they may be facing between fuel efficiency, safety (i.e., traction), and durability (i.e., treadwear life), and how the balance of these factors may differ from tire to tire.
The NHTSA's research has found that while tire construction need not sacrifice traction or treadwear for improved fuel efficiency, maintaining the same traction and treadwear while increasing the fuel efficiency of a given tire often entails higher costs.
So, if a manufacturer seeks to improve the fuel efficiency of a given replacement tire construction while keeping cost constant, there's a good chance that the construction will sacrifice either traction or treadwear.
The Rubber Manufactuers Association, representing eight tire manufacturers, says the new testing needed to rate the tires will incur more than $20 million in industry costs and opposes the labels.
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- Scott Doggett June 23, 2009, 4:40 PM
- Categories:
- Emissions, Fuel Economy, Legislation, Tires
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- Carbon Dioxide
, Fuel Economy, Global Warming, Legislation, NHTSA, Rolling Resistance, Tires
June 15, 2009
An agency is looking into rating the rolling resistance of passenger and light-truck tires available for sale in California so that the state's motorists would know the fuel efficiency of tires when in the market for them.
A draft proposal of the California Energy Commission's Fuel Efficient Tire program was presented June 10 at a workshop attended by tire-manufacturer representatives.
The CEC proposed a rating system for passenger and light-truck tires in which all tires of the same size and load index be ranked against each other from lowest to highest rolling resistance force (or RRF), whereby those tires with the lowest RRF would be the most efficent.
The CEC proposal suggets that the 15 percent of tires with the best RRF be designated a "fuel-efficient tire." Manufacturers would need to test all of their consumer tires using the identical ISO 28580 test protocol, the CEC proposed.
The commission wants the rating system to be consumer friendly and easy to use, but it stressed that complete tire data should also be available for anyone interested in in-depth research.
A rolling-resistance-rating system will foster market competition, the CEC concluded, resulting in more fuel-efficient tires being available for purchase.
A spokesman for the Rubber Manufactuers Association, representing eight tire manufacturers, reported that the tire companies feel the new testing needed to rate the tires will incur more than $20 million in industry costs and require the hiring of additional staff for testing as well as data managment.
Naturally, the RMA wants a "self-certification" system in place wherein the companies would watch what each other does and challenge ratings they feel are incorrect.
And borrowing from a play book useed by automakers as related to tailpipe emission, the RMA spokesman pointed out that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is developing a federal-level tire rolling resistance regulation, thus, he said, the "California-only rule may not be prudent."
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- Scott Doggett June 15, 2009, 3:03 PM
- Categories:
- Emissions, Fuel Economy, Legislation, Tires
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- California Energy Commission
, Fuel Efficient Tire, Legislation, Rolling Resistance, Tires
June 9, 2009
If you've ever attended a fuel-efficiency competition such as Shell's annual Eco-marathon America, you likely know the importance hypermilers give to rock-hard tires to minimize roll resistance and maximize fuel economy.
The drawback to riding on tires with as much give as, say, a 50-pound steel workout weight is that they feel like you're riding on solid-steel tires.
Michelin announced today that it's come up with a new tire line that is up to 8 percent more fuel efficient than other tires in its class, can reduce a vehicle's carbon-dioxide emissions and do both things without compromising performance.
And - surprise! - Michelin timed the announcement to correspond with the line's availability in stores nationwide.
The tire manufacturer says the technology engineered into its Michelin Energy Saver all-season tire is the result of more than 16 years of research and development in the area of rolling resistance and fuel-efficiency.
With the tire, Michelin engineers were able to achieve and deliver increased fuel efficiency by decreasing the levels of rolling resistance, or energy loss in the tire, the company said in a statement.
To prevent the tire from providing a ride that's as stiff as surfboard, Michelin used "computer-optimized design and precision manufacturing to offer greatly reduced vibrations and road noise to keep the vehicle quiet, while a silica-based rubber compound provides all-season traction."
The tire is available in four sizes that include popular mainstream and hybrid vehicles. The sizes are: P215/60R16; P195/65R15; P195/60R15 and P185/65R15.
Scott Doggett, Contributor
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- Scott Doggett June 9, 2009, 8:22 AM
- Categories:
- Emissions, Fuel Economy, Tires
- Technorati Tags:
- Carbon Emissions
, Climate Change, Fuel Economy, Greenhouse Gases, Micheilin
April 29, 2009
More than Half of Vehicles Checked Were Wasting Fuel With Underinflated Tires
Volunteer checks tire pressure on 2000 Ford Explorer, one of nearly 500 vehicles checked during Earth Day project.
Running your vehicle on underinflated tires wastes fuel. That's a fact. What's harder to come by are numbers showing just how many of us don't pump up to specifications and how much gas we end up wasting.
We're trying to get a handle on it here at Edmunds.com, though.
Last year, for Earth Day, our in-house Green Team checked the tires on 212 employee vehicles and found that, on average (figuring the average correct tire pressure to be 32 pounds per square inch, or psi), they were underinflated by 7 percent, or 2.24 psi. And you'd think that at Edmunds we'd all be really car-savvy and never run around on tires that weren't in tip-top trim!
This year, we pushed out into the local community, setting up shop on Earth Day last Wednesday at a gas station near our global headquarters here in the People's Republic of Santa Monica and offering a free tire pressure check and, if needed, proper inflation, to everyone who came in for gas while we were there.
Our three shifts of volunteers, working from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m., checked the tires on 83 vehicles and recorded all the pertinent data.
We actually partnered for our Earth Day tire inflation project with a number of area businesses - car dealers, service stations and tire shops, mainly - and the 28 participating locales checked about 500 vehicles (we're still waiting for a few to report their numbers, so we don't have the exact tally yet).
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Toyota of Santa Monica was one of Edmunds' tire pressure partners. Its technicians checked 144 vehicles on Earth Day.
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But we only recorded inflation data at the gas station manned by Edmunds volunteers, so that's what we'll deal with here.
Too Many Too Soft
After massaging the data, our crack analysts found that only 1 in 5 motorists was riding on properly inflated tires, while 29 percent of the vehicles we checked had overinflated tires and 52 percent were underinflated.
Even relatively new cars and SUVs with federally required tire pressure monitors were checking out underinflated - not because the owners were ignoring the pressure warning, but because the most commonly used monitors don't sound an alarm until at least one tire is down by 20 percent or more.
We found pressures that ranged from an impressive 22 psi overinflated (a Honda CR-V crossover with a ride like a rock) to a worrisome 17.8 psi underinflated (a Ford F150 pickup that was giving up 6 mpg because of its supersoft tires).
On average, those with insufficient air were running 5.6 psi below manufacturers' specifications. That's underinflated by 16.5 percent; better than the estimated national average of 26 percent underinflation, but still not very good.
Those running overinflated tires were pumped up, on average, by an average of 5 psi too much. But overinflation, while contributing to excessive tire wear and reduced traction, doesn't have much impact on fuel economy.
Tire specialists who worry about such things tell us, though, that every 2.9 psi of underinflation (that would be the average of all four tires) lowers fuel economy by one mile per gallon.
Our group of 43 softies was averaging a 1.9 mpg fuel economy reduction, collectively wasting 1,771.2 gallons of gas a year until we filled 'em up to proper specs last week and sent them off with warm wishes and a reminder that running underinflated tires not only wastes gas, it contributes to tire overheating and premature wear - even to blowouts - and ends up costing you money.
How Much?
At the present national average of $2.05 a gallon for regular unleaded gas and an average annual loss of 41.19 gallons to the ravages of underinflation, we figure our average driver with too-soft tires was spending an unnecessary $84.44 a year for fuel and spewing an extra 800 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere in the process.
At $3 a gallon, that total annual cost of those underinflated tires would climb to $123.57 for each vehicle; it would hit $164.74 a year at $4 a gallon - enough to pay for a new set of tires every few years.
Of course, by keeping your tires properly inflated, you probably won't need a new set of tires that often, but that's another issue.
John O'Dell, Senior Editor
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- John O'Dell April 29, 2009, 3:00 AM
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February 13, 2009
Automotive-components supplier Valeo announced today that it's partnered with tire maker and fellow French company Michelin to develop and produce all-electric and plug-in hybrid electric cars.
The announcement comes less than three months after Michelin said its revolutionary Active Wheel technology, featuring dual electric motors mounted inside wheels that not only propel a car but also control the suspension, will be implemented in electric vehicles produced by French automaker Heuliez starting in 2010.
"We will develop a powertrain system and the car will be built around it," Valeo CEO Thierry Morin said this morning.
Morin said the companies hope to build a "French champion" in the electric-car sector. The companies are seeking an automaker to join a consortium that will build vehicles around Michelin's Active Wheel technology.
"We may team up with a French firm or it may be a Germany company," Morin said during a press conference after announcing the company's 2008 financial results. "What's really interesting is the know-how Michelin has developed."
Paris-based Valeo is one the world's top auto suppliers and Michelin, of Clermont-Ferrand in central France, is a leading tire maker.
Michelin's Active Wheel technology is a standard wheel that houses a pair of electric motors. One of the motors spins the wheel, while the other acts as an active suspension system to improve comfort.
Michelin says battery or fuel cell-powered Active Wheel cars will not need a gearbox, clutch, transmission shift, universal joint or antiroll bar.
With Michelin providing key elements of the powertrain and tires, Valeo will concentrate on engine and battery cooling systems, climate control, lighting and energy management.
Valeo specializes in electrical systems, engine management and climate control, and was a key supplier of the drivetrain for more than 10,000 first-generation EVs developed by PSA Peugeot Citroen and Renault.
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- Scott Doggett February 13, 2009, 9:39 AM
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- Emissions, Fuel Economy, Michelin, Plug-ins and Electric, Tires, Valeo
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- Active Wheel
, Electric Car, Electric Vehicle, EV, Michelin, Plug-in Hybrid Electric, Valeo
January 27, 2009
We've already told you about Lotus using hemp and sisal
in its Eco Elise and Ford using oil from soybeans
in newer Mustangs, Expeditions and F-150 pickup trucks.
Now we're pleased to report that Yokohama Tire Corp. is using oil extracted from orange rinds in its ADVAN brand of ultra-high-performance street and racing tires.
The tires, which are produced using roughly 20 percent less synthetic rubber, will be used by all teams in the 2009 Patron GT3 Challenge six-race series that features Porsche 911 GT3 Cup racecars.
Yokohama has developed a process that combines orange oil with natural rubber to form a new compound the tire company calls Super Nano-Power RubberT. The proprietary technology reduces the amount of petroleum used in tires without, Yokohama claims, compromising the performance characteristics of conventional race tires.
Yokohama's Motorsports division began researching this technology in the late 1980s. Development was recently accelerated as part of the company's global environmental strategy.
In addition to requiring less petroleum in the manufacturing process, the tires result in lower rolling resistance, which increases the fuel-efficiency of the vehicles using them. Use of the orange oil also improves the tires' "recyclability," company spokesmen said.
Kudos to Yokohama for making our planet a little more renewable.
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- Scott Doggett January 27, 2009, 9:35 AM
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- Fuel Economy, Porsche, Recycling, Tires
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, Recycling, Super Nano-Power RubberT, Yokohama Tire Corp.
September 11, 2008
Following a six-year legal battle, federal safety regulators have launched an online database that details thousands of deaths, injuries and property claims made to automakers and tire manufacturers.
The database at safercar.gov, which also includes data on lawsuits, recalls and other reported defects, can be helpful to motorists looking to downsize from gas-guzzlers to fuel-efficient vehicles and wanting to avoid vehicles that have safety issues.
Created in the wake of the recall of 14.4 million Firestone tires that were linked to 270 deaths, the database is designed to help prevent auto defects from causing widespread harm.
Automakers and tire manufacturers started submitting the information to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 2003 to alert the agency to possible widespread safety dangers before they cause serious harm.
Under pressure from the manufacturers, NHTSA is withholding some data from the public database, including consumer complaints to the manufacturer and the last six digits of vehicle identification numbers.
Safety advocates praised the decision by the courts to force the information to become public, but said the database wasn't "consumer friendly" enough and didn't disclose enough information.
Scott Doggett, Contributor
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- Scott Doggett September 11, 2008, 7:23 AM
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- Courts, Tires
September 8, 2008
Volkswagen today unveiled a concept of its next-generation Golf, equipped with a BlueMotion diesel engine capable of achieving a combined 74 miles per gallon in European fuel-economy trials.
The U.S. EPA's fuel-economy estimate would be quite a bit lower -- about 62 mpg -- but that's still much better than, say, the mid- to high-40s of the fuel-sipping Toyota Prius hybrid.
The car is powered by a 1.6-liter TDI common-rail diesel engine developing 103 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque at 2,000 rpm. It can reportedly reach 62 mph from rest in a respectable 11.3 seconds before going on to a top speed of 117 mph.
The BlueMotion label represents the most efficient model in each of Volkswagen's passenger car ranges. As with all other BlueMotion models, this one has been tweaked aerodynamically, fitted with low-rolling resistance tires and mechanically optimized for fuel efficiency.
The production version is scheduled to go on sale in Europe in mid-2009. Unfortunately, due to the weakness of the dollar, Americans won't likely see it in showrooms at all and will have to make do with the standard Golf TDI with the 110-horsepower engine that VW says returns 52 mpg.
Scott Doggett, Contributor
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- Scott Doggett September 8, 2008, 4:54 PM
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- Diesel, Emissions, Fuel Economy, Hybrid, Tires, Toyota, Volkswagen
August 29, 2008
Major tire maker Bridgestone America announced today that it will no longer use lead wheel weights.
The company, which operates 2,000 tire service stores across the U.S., made the announcement at a joint press conference in Detroit at which the federal Environmental Protection Agency called on businesses to voluntarily switch to steel weights when balancing wheels and tires.
The press conference served as the formal launch of the EPA's National Lead-Free Wheel Weight Initiative. The weights are attached to wheels when tires are installed to counteract the combined effect of tire and wheel weight imbalances that can cause the wheel to wobble.
The trouble with lead weights is that they tend to fall off, get ground to lead dust by passing vehicles and eventually end up in groundwater supplies. In humans, lead particles can cause brain damage, birth defects and death.
The EPA's initiative follows a recent court decision that resulted in Chrysler and the three largest wheel weight makers in America agreeing to stop using lead weights in California by the end of 2009.
In its suit, the Oakland-based Center for Environmental Health maintained that errant tire weights are responsible for 500,000 pounds of lead being released into California's environment alone each year.
According to Jeff Gearhart, director of the Clean Car Campaign at the Michigan-based Ecology Center, lead wheel weights are the nation's largest unregulated source of new lead leaching into the environment.
Scott Doggett, Contributor
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- Scott Doggett August 29, 2008, 10:04 AM
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August 7, 2008
Long the bane of lawn owners everywhere, the sunny-faced dandelion could revolutionize the rubber industry.
Scientists from Ohio State University and the Ohio BioProducts Innovation Center recently received a $3 million grant to design and build a processing plant that would turn sticky white dandelion root sap into quality rubber, according to a Discovery News article published this week.
"We still haven't been able to find an artificial substitute for natural rubber," said William Ravlin, a researcher involved in the project. "We're still harvesting [rubber] the same way they did 1,000 years ago -- by cutting into the tree and letting the sap drip into containers. It's not a very efficient system."
Efficiency, the Ohio scientists say, would be Midwestern farmers in air-conditioned tractors harvesting acres of dandelions with the same machines used to pull tulip bulbs.
Ten to 20 percent of the plant's carrot-like root is rubber-ready. "And that's without modifying them with biotechnology or breeding," Ravlin told Discovery News.
Researchers expect that within a few years the processing plant in Ohio could produce about 20 million tons of rubber annually.
Synthetic rubber doesn't perform as well as natural rubber. Car tires can contain as little as 10 percent natural rubber, but the more demanding the job, the more natural rubber is needed: Airplane tires are 100 percent natural rubber.
Some of the dandelion rubber will eventually go to Bridgestone, a leading tire manufacturer.
"I think this has some real potential," Bridgestone's Jason Poulton told Discovery News.
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- Scott Doggett August 7, 2008, 3:35 PM
- Categories:
- Biofuels, Fuel Economy, Recycling, Tires
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, Dandelions, Environment, Recycle, Rubber
