EXPLORING HAZELNUT SHELL-DERIVED CARBON AS AN ECO-FRIENDLY ADDITIVE IN BICYCLE TIRE MANUFACTURING

Recently, the tire industry has focused on eco-friendly practices, particularly on integrating waste materials into rubber formulations. Natural alternatives to carbon have offered a promising way to lower the carbon footprint by promoting recycling. This study explored the incorporation of carbon derived from hazelnut shells (HSC), an agricultural byproduct, as an additive in bicycle tire manufacturing. Bicycle tire formulations were prepared by maintaining a constant total carbon filler content of 28 parts per hundred rubber (phr). Initially, 28 phr of commercial carbon black and 0 phr of HSC were used. In subsequent formulations, the carbon black content was gradually reduced to (21, 14, 7, and finally 0) phr, while the HSC content was correspondingly increased to (7, 14, 21, and 28) phr to replace the reduced commercial carbon black. The produced tires were analyzed using density measurements, Mooney viscosity (MV), Mooney scorch (MS), rheological evaluations, mechanical testing, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), plunger tests, and rolling resistance tests. The study demonstrates that, although increasing the amount of HSC in tire compositions reduces the mechanical performance, the required performance standards for bicycle tires are still met.