100% Sustainable Tires: Carbios and Michelin Take a Major Step Towards Developing 100% Sustainable Tires

100% Sustainable Tires: Carbios and Michelin Take a Major Step Towards Developing 100% Sustainable Tires

Michelin has successfully validated the use of Carbios’ enzymatic recycling technology for PET1 plastic waste in its tires

Carbios confirms the potential of its recycled PET to address all types of applications – from bottles to clothing fibres and now technical fibres

The validation of Carbios’ technology in Michelin’s tests, marks a new step towards 100% sustainable tires

CARBIOS (Euronext Growth Paris: ALCRB), a company pioneering new bio-industrial solutions to reinvent the lifecycle of plastic and textile polymers, and MICHELIN, a leader in sustainable mobility, have taken a major step towards developing 100% sustainable tires. Michelin has successfully tested and applied Carbios’ enzymatic recycling process for PET plastic waste, in order to create a high tenacity tire fibre that meets the tire-giant’s technical requirements.

Enzymatic recycling: a revolutionary process

Carbios’ enzymatic recycling process uses an enzyme capable of depolymerizing the PET contained in various plastics or textiles (bottles, trays, polyester clothing, etc.). This innovation allows infinite recycling of all types of PET waste. It also allows the production of 100% recycled and 100% recyclable PET products, with the same quality as if they were produced with virgin PET.

The application of PET enzymatic recycling in car tires: a world first

Conventional thermomechanical recycling processes for complex plastics do not achieve the PET high-performance grade required for pneumatic applications. However, the monomers resulting from Carbios’ process, which used colored and opaque plastic waste such as bottles, once repolymerized in PET, made it possible to obtain a high tenacity fibre meeting Michelin’s tire requirements.

The technical fibre obtained is of the same quality as the one from virgin PET, processed with the same prototype installations. This high tenacity polyester is particularly suitable for tires, due to its breakage resistance, toughness, and thermal stability.

“We are very proud to be the first to have produced and tested recycled technical fibres for tires. These reinforcements were made from colored bottles and recycled using the enzymatic technology of our partner, Carbios,” said Nicolas Seeboth, Director of Polymer Research at Michelin. “These high-tech reinforcements have demonstrated their ability to provide performance identical to those from the oil industry.”

Carbios’ enzymatic recycling process therefore enables Michelin to get one step closer to its sustainable ambitions, and contributes to the entry of tires into a true circular economy. Michelin is committed to achieving 40% sustainable materials (of renewable or recycled origin) by 2030 and 100% by 2050.

The potential of Carbios’ process confirmed

This major step constitutes a world-first in the tire sector and confirms the potential of Carbios’ process to engage the industry in a responsible transition towards a sustainable circular economy model.

Every year, 1.6 billion car tires are sold worldwide (by all tire manufacturers combined). The PET fibres used in these tires represent 800,000 tonnes of PET per year.

When applied to Michelin – this represents nearly 3 billion plastic bottles per year that could be recycled into technical fibres for use in the company’s tires.

“In 2019, Carbios announced it had produced the first PET bottles with 100% Purified Terephthalic Acid (rPTA), made from the enzymatic recycling of post-consumer PET waste. Today, with Michelin, we are demonstrating the full extent of our process by obtaining from this same plastic waste, recycled PET that is suitable for highly technical fibres, such as those used in Michelin’s tires,” said Alain Marty, Carbios’ Chief Scientific Officer.

About Carbios:: Carbios, a green chemistry company, develops biological and innovative processes to revolutionize the end of life of plastics and textiles. Through its unique approach of combining enzymes and plastics, Carbios aims to address new consumer expectations and the challenges of a broader energy transition by taking up a major challenge of our time: plastic and textile pollution

Suez blockage cleared... yet tsunami of container price hike unleashed

A Tsunami of Sharp increases in Asia-Europe container spot rates this week is getting unleashed from the week-long Suez Canal blockage restricting both vessel and equipment capacity in Asia. 

Today’s Ningbo Containerized Freight Index (NCFI) North Europe and Mediterranean component jumped by 8.7%, almost matching the 8.6% increase on the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI).

“Carriers collectively pushed up rates for April voyages and booking prices rose sharply,” said the NCF .According to Drewry’s WCI index, rates from Asia to North Europe were up 5% this week, to $7,852 per 40ft, but in practice shippers are paying much more – if they can find a line to accept bookings. “Spot rates are being driven up, and longer-term or contract rates are effectively worthless,” said UK-based forwarder Westbound Logistics.

Meet the new normal:  Limited equipment and space 

 “There is already limited equipment and booking availability, which is varying from line to line and from origin to origin. Finding a line with a booking slot has become a struggle and when slots are found, they will go quickly if the booking is not confirmed immediately. “This means when we quote a spot rate, we may only have a very limited time – sometimes only 10-15 minutes – before that quote becomes unavailable to book,” said Westbound.

Moreover, it seems the situation for shippers could get much worse before it gets better. During a press briefing yesterday, Hapag-Lloyd CEO Rolf Haben Jansen said: “Box availability will be tight for the next six to eight weeks. “We expect most services will miss one-to-two sailings, which will impact available capacity in Q2.” He added, however, that he was “optimistic” of a “return to normalcy in Q3”.

Meanwhile, on the transpacific tradelane, the Freightos Baltic Exchange (FBX) reading for Asia to the US west coast increased 4% this week, to $5,375 per 40ft, 251% higher than for the same week of last year, while for the east coast, the FBX was up 2%, to $5,868 per 40ft – 108% up on the year before.

Transpacific BCOs 

Transpacific BCOs are in the final stages of contract negotiations with carriers, which, according to reports to The Loadstar, are “not negotiations at all but demands by the shipping lines”. And, according to Jon Monroe, of Washington state-based Jon Monroe Consulting, some carriers are reducing the MQC (minimum quantity commitment) for BCO annual contracts in order to allocate more space for premium-rated business.  It is not that carriers do not have space. It is that they only have a limited amount of space for the very high-paying FAK cargo. 

Rate hike contagion is spreading .... to all tradelanes

The hitherto stable transatlantic tradelane is also starting to see some enormous increases in rates.

“Continued strong demand and scarce capacity sent rates spiking this week,” said Freightos research lead Judah Levine, who noted that prices from Europe to North America had jumped 30% to a multi-year high of $2,851 per 40ft, and reflected a 55% increase since the start of the year. Indeed, the rate hike contagion has spread to almost all tradelanes, and that is going straight to the bottom lines of the carriers, with, for example, Cosco Shipping saying this week it expects to post a net profit of $2.3bn just for the first quarter, having seen a 55% increase in its average rate compared with Q4 20.