Demonstration Overview
The DoD STED Program demonstrated biobased tires at DoD Installations and co-located federal facilities.
Although retread tires are designated for Federal procurement preference under the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Comprehensive Procurement Guidelines (CPG), they are not suitable for all applications and utilize fossil fuels in the tread compound. This demonstration therefore evaluated innovative biobased tire technology developed by Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company with support from the United Soybean Board that utilizes plant-derived components (soybean oil) in the tread compound in place of fossil fuel-derived materials. The biobased tread technology replaces 100% of the petroleum oil used in the manufacturing of the tire tread and 60 percent of the approximately 7 gallons of petroleum oil used in the manufacture of one passenger tire. The oil is typically 8 percent of the total tire weight.
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Before these biobased products are utilized by the Military Departments and DoD Components, their performance must be proven to meet DoD requirements.
Demonstration Products*
The following biobased products were demonstrated:
- Assurance WeatherReady by Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company
- Eagle Enforcer All Weather by Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company
- Eagle Exhilarate by Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company
- Assurance ComfortDrive by Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company
*Mention of or referral to commercial products, services, and manufacturers herein is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute endorsement by, nor the official policy or position of, the Department of Defense (DoD), any of its Components, or the U.S. Government.
Demonstration Sites
Field demonstrations of these products were performed at the following DoD installations and co-located federal facilities to evaluate their performance in Military operational environments and to raise awareness of biobased product availability:
- Shaw Air Force Base (AFB)
- Moody AFB
- Tyndall AFB
- Joint Base Langley-Eustis (JBLE)
- Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Tactical Emergency Vehicle Operations Center (TEVOC), Quantico
- Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC)
Demonstration Details
A biobased tire demonstration plan was developed to outline the demonstration activities to be performed, identify demonstration vehicles and related tire performance requirements, determine the key performance criteria to be measured, as well as select the biobased tire products to be evaluated. Installation personnel were provided the biobased tires for each demonstration and asked to provide feedback on the tire performance. Table 1 contains the key performance criteria that the stakeholders established to evaluate and validate that the biobased tires met the participants’ requirements.
Table 1: Demonstration Performance Criteria
| Criteria | Parameters |
|---|---|
| Tire Performance |
|
| Tire Longevity |
|
Demonstration Results
The participating vehicle operators and maintainers at the listed installations found the biobased tire products to be acceptable alternatives to their currently used tire products. The demonstrated tires met the identified key performance criteria as follows:
- The demonstration tires braking performance in wet, dry, and winter conditions was the same or better than baseline non-biobased tire braking performance.
- The demonstration tires cornering, handling, and acceleration performance in wet, dry, and winter conditions was the same or better than baseline non-biobased tire cornering, handling, and acceleration performance.
- The demonstration tires ride comfort was the same or better than baseline non-biobased tire ride comfort.
- The demonstration tire wear was the same or better than baseline non-biobased tire wear.
- The demonstration tire appearance/condition was the same or better than baseline non-biobased tire appearance/condition. The demonstration tires had no documented irregularities with tire wear and condition such as discoloring, weathering/cracking, bulging, tread separation, and sidewall distortion.
- The demonstration sites found the cost of the biobased tires to be comparable to the currently used similar performance level non-biobased tires.
Based on the results of this demonstration, the FBI HQ Sustainability Program developed an FBI Bureau-wide Guidance and Case Study for buying biobased tires and encouraged the use of the biobased tires at all FBI field vehicle maintenance facilities across the U.S. For their efforts, the FBI Sustainability Program received the USDA BioPreferred Program Excellence in Procurement Award. Click HERE for more information.