The Economic Times has an interview with Surendra Chawla, head of global R&D for Goodyear Tire and Rubber. The topic is precipitated silica produced from rice hull ash for potential use in tires at the expense of both carbon black and conventionally-produced precipitated silica. According to Goodyear, one of the biggest benefits of rice husk ash silica is production costs:
How cost-effective is this compared with extracting silica from sand? Surendra Chawla: There are two aspects to this. The cost, of course, is lower. But the bigger aspect is that the energy consumed in extracting silica from the traditional source, which is sand, is much higher. To extract silica from sand, you have to heat the sand up to 1,400 degrees Celsius. We don’t have a plant yet to produce silica from husk ash — only a pilot facility. But the power required, the temperature required for extracting silica from ash is only 100 degrees Celsius versus.
Earlier this year, there were a spate of stories about Goodyear’s interest in silica produced from rice husk ash. Pirelli also has committed to using this product in its tires.