NDSU professor Dean Webster’s research is featured in the United Soybean checkoff’s annual report. Webster is the chair of NDSU’s Department of Coatings and Polymeric Materials, and his work examines how soybean oil can improve and increase performance of automotive tire rubber.
The report, titled “Spurring Automotive Innovation with Soy,” discusses soy-based products that have shown promise as sustainable replacements for traditional petroleum products. The report notes that the industrial use of soy is growing at a rate of 6 percent per year.
Soybean oil forms complex interactions with other polymers, becoming a rugged type of solid that retains a sense of elasticity. Using soybean oil also reduces the need for petrochemicals in the process, thus improving overall sustainability.
Webster calls soybean oil a “sweet spot” in regards to how well it performs for tire rubber. Goodyear has conducted similar research targeted at soybean oil tire rubber performance in the company’s all-season tires. In 2017, the company launched the first soy-based all-weather tire with a formula that replaces 60 percent of the petroleum content with soybean oil. Goodyear plans to fully replace petroleum by 2040.
Webster plans to add additional value by tweaking the research to improve the performance of soy-based rubber in geographies that have a wide temperature variance from season to season (a concern with traditional polymers) and that will provide superior traction in slippery and wet conditions. His team is collaborating with Ford on new formulations that have already shown great promise in outperforming traditional petroleum-based options in both those areas.
According to USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, the U.S. produces more than 89 million acres of soybeans annually. Of that, four million metric tons are used by industry according to the United Soybean Board’s Market View Database.
