Hankook and Solvay collaborate on eco-silica

On January 10, Hankook Tire and the Belgian chemical company Solvay signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at jointly developing innovative eco-friendly silica for tire production.

The signing ceremony took place at Hankook's Technodome research center in Daejeon, South Korea, with the signatures of Hankook's President and Technical Director Bonhee Ku and Solvay's President of Silica and Specialized Chemicals An Nuyttens.

Currently, several tire manufacturers use eco-friendly silica from rice husk ash, an agricultural by-product. However, as noted by Hankook, the use of such raw materials can cause problems in some regions, such as high costs and insufficient diversification of supply regions.

Rice husk has a relatively high bulk density, which increases transportation costs. As a result, Hankook intends to explore alternative sources of silica with Solvay.

At the moment, various samples are being evaluated, and in the future, the new eco-friendly silica is planned to be gradually introduced into mass production.

Hankook adds that they are implementing other sustainability initiatives, such as the production of tires for electric vehicles from the iON line, which were first made in Korea using cord made from recycled PET fibers in collaboration with SK Chemicals and Hyosung Advanced Materials. Additionally, in May 2023, Hankook also signed a memorandum of understanding with Kumho Petrochemical for joint development of eco-friendly tires.