“Saving our air from tire wear.” – The Tyre Collective
The Tyre Collective has been awarded the 2020 UK national James Dyson Award for its patent-pending technology designed to capture synthetic microscopic rubber particles expelled from car tires. The British startup comprises four graduate students, Hanson Cheng, Siobhan Anderson, Hugo Richardson, and Deepak Mallya, from London’s Imperial College and Royal College of Art.
The TC01 prototype attaches to each wheel’s steering knuckle, above where the tire meets the road, capturing the rubber particles released via friction every time the car accelerates, brakes, or turns a corner. These microscopic bits of artificial rubber, known as tire wear, are responsible for over 50% of all particulate emissions produced by vehicles and are released into the air we breathe and waterways.
Cheng said:
We began the project looking at microplastics at large and were shocked when we discovered that tire wear was the second-largest microplastic pollutant in the environment, after single-use plastic, and a major source of air pollution. This challenged our perception of what vehicle pollution is, as it is commonly associated with tailpipe emissions. We all know tires wear down but never considered where it all goes. These microparticles are all around us and barely visible.
To visualize the problem at hand, the team tracked Transport for London (TFL) buses in real-time. Their calculations showed that the amount of rubber released into the atmosphere by one bus per day is the same size as a grapefruit.
Previous experiments involved using adhesives or vacuuming technology to collect these particles. However, they discovered that the easiest and most efficient solution was to harness the positive electrostatic charge of the tire particles formed by the friction through which they are released. In other words, the rubber particles can be captured from the air using static electricity, like hair sticking to a balloon when it’s rubbed on someone’s head.
Copper plates integrated into the TC01 device are electrostatically charged via the car’s alternator, allowing them to attract the rubber bits. The unit is positioned in the natural airflow path around the spinning wheel to catch the particles efficiently before they enter the atmosphere.
The Tyre Collective claims that the device captured 60% of all airborne particulates when assessed on a test rig. These rubber fragments are stored in a removable cartridge that needs to be emptied once a month. The waste rubber can then be used to create new products, such as new tires.
Cheng explained:
We want to challenge existing models of business and design and envision ones focused on circularity and responsibility. We are speaking to tire recycling companies and developing applications for tire wear, including reintroducing this micro rubber into new tire production and upcycling it into footwear outsoles and carbon black, a pigment used to create inks.
While CO2 emissions are projected to drop with the increasing number of electric vehicles (EVs) on the road, tire emissions are likely to rise due to the additional battery weight. “Future vehicle pollution will not come from the tailpipe but from tires,” Cheng added. The Tyre Collective is currently negotiating a development partnership with an international car manufacturer to look at refining the device, with the ultimate goal of integrating it into new EVs.
The Tyre Collective is one of 27 national winners of this year’s James Dyson Award. In November, this list will further dwindle to 20 front-runners before one sustainability, and one overall winner is chosen, with each receiving £30,000 (US$38,984) in funding.
The 2019 international James Dyson Award was given to MarinaTex – a biodegradable and compostable plastic made from fish waste. Eco-inventor Lucy Hughes developed a transparent film from fish waste to fight plastic pollution and food waste at the same time.
