Green Tyres from Corn Stalks
Can car tires and shoe soles be made from rubber derived from corn stalks? In Boxing County, a "green" rubber project is leveraging a national-level pilot-scale testing platform to bring this amazing technology out of the laboratory, onto the production line, and directly to consumers.
"Currently, our non-grain bio-based rubber is moving from industrialization to commercialization, and some products are already being used in the production of shoe materials and tires," said Liu Chao, General Manager of Jingbo Zhongju Special Rubber Branch. In 2024, Jingbo Zhongju, by linking the entire industry chain, successfully launched its non-grain bio-based rubber route. After receiving approval to build a 10,000-ton/year non-grain bio-based rubber production line at the end of 2024, Jingbo Zhongju completed the process package design in 2025, marking the world's first non-grain bio-based rubber product entering the 10,000-ton-level industrialization stage.
"From a 2-liter small-scale test to a 200-liter pilot-scale test, and then to a 1,000-ton demonstration unit, the pilot-scale testing platform has played a crucial role in the maturation and industrialization of this technology," said Liu Chao. Currently, the platform has built approximately 380,000 square meters of experimental space and modularly constructed seven pilot-scale production lines, including those for polyolefin alloys, carbonyl synthesis, and bio-based itaconic acid ester rubber. By creating an asset-sharing digital platform, it has enabled the sharing of over 3,000 sets of instruments and mature pilot-scale production lines worth over 400 million yuan, reducing the industry's typical starting cost of tens of millions of yuan for pilot-scale production to the tens of thousands of yuan level. This alleviates the innovation burden on universities and SMEs and stimulates industrial innovation.
Furthermore, the platform integrates over 100 engineering transformation experts and pilot-scale operation experts from the industrial cluster and gathers over 400 expert resources, including academicians, forming a talent pool supporting the entire chain of engineering transformation and providing professional support for the application of research results.
Wu Wenlei, the person in charge of the operation of the Green Chemical and New Materials Pilot-Scale Production Platform, stated that to date, the platform has industrialized over 50 scientific research achievements and is currently developing over 70 key projects. Thirteen new products, including bio-based rubber, polypropylene, aramid nanofibers, polybutene alloys, and polyketones, have driven over 2 billion yuan in new output value and fostered four specialized and innovative enterprises. "The raw materials for non-grain bio-based rubber are agricultural and forestry waste such as straw. The raw materials are controllable and environmentally friendly, and the anti-slip properties and batch-to-batch stability of the product are superior to those of natural rubber products. Leveraging the advantages of the pilot-scale platform, we have recently conducted specific optimizations on the odor, color, and abrasion resistance of non-grain bio-based rubber, laying a solid foundation for further expansion of application scenarios," said Liu Chao.