For over 70 years, Ergon has been delivering innovative products and service solutions for ever-changing needs. With more than 4,200 employees working across a solutions-driven supply chain, the company supports industries and communities globally. Customers can access Ergon’s products and services in more than 100 countries around the world.

Through an enhanced focus on the needs of speciality markets, Ergon has grown to become the world’s leading producer and marketer of naphthenic oils. Its horizons have expanded, but the mission remains the same: meet needs, support families, serve customers.

Ergon manufactures, markets and distributes speciality oils in the US, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Its strategically located terminals throughout these regions create a secure and consistent supply of speciality oils for customers.

As chemistries shift and the needs of customers evolve, Ergon is leveraging its expertise in speciality oils to advance industries, such as the tyre industry, with innovative, low-carbon solutions that meet the evolving demands of customers.

OVER 30 YEARS OF QUALITY PROCESSING AND TESTING

Customers can trust that Ergon’s process oils are formulated to meet exact specifications and undergo thorough testing. Ergon International partners with various laboratories, including its own US facilities and esteemed European laboratories, to rigorously test materials and deliver consistent, high-quality solutions. The company’s technical experts are recognised worldwide for their commitment to working with partners to advance industry standards for quality speciality oils.

HIGH-QUALITY OILS

Ergon’s process oils are genuine naphthenic oils produced to precise specifications and designed for a variety of processing applications. These oils offer low pour points, excellent solvency, low odour and strong colour stability. The products range from low (4 cSt) to high (936 cSt) viscosity, with blending capabilities to meet a range of industry needs.

TAILORED TYRE SOLUTIONS FROM A TEAM OF GLOBAL EXPERTS

Customers are seeking dependable solutions for an array of applications. Ergon’s experts understand the unique needs of each and tailor formulations to optimise product performance. The products, such as HyPrene Process Oils, are essential for a wide range of tyre applications, including passenger vehicles, heavy-duty trucks, off-road vehicles, aviation and motorcycles.

Properties such as viscosity, solvency, molecular weight, thermal stability and polarity are key to tyre performance. These chemical properties influence vulcanisation, flexibility, durability, traction and rolling resistance. Achieving the right balance can be a challenge, but Ergon’s team of technical experts is dedicated to developing formulations to meet customers’ specific tyre needs.

Sustainable tyre development prioritises eco-friendly process oils, such as bio-based and recycled materials, energy-efficient manufacturing and circular economy principles. This results in greater longevity of tyres through improved traction and rolling resistance.

Ergon’s tyre solutions help optimise safety, rolling resistance, grip and performance while reducing CO₂ emissions through the adoption of greener technologies. These advancements enable the development of specialised tyres, such as those for challenging terrains or for electric and autonomous vehicles.

PRODUCT COMPLIANCE

Ergon’s tyre oils, including naphthenic oils, are carefully monitored to meet stringent regulatory requirements, ensuring compliance with the amendment (EU) 2015/326 of Annex XVII to the REACH regulation (EC) 1907/2006; the European standard EN 16143:2013, which governs the determination of Benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) and selected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in extender oils.

Additionally, Ergon supports tyre manufacturers in aligning with Regulation (EC) No. 1222/2009, which provides the EU framework for tyre labelling based on fuel efficiency, wet grip and noise performance. By prioritising both compliance and performance, Ergon’s process oils help customers navigate evolving industry standards while optimising tyre formulations.

ERGON PRODUCTS USED IN TYRES

Ergon Mineral Oil Products – Low-PAH Naphthenic Oils

• HyPrene 100E (For High Filled Compounds)
• HyPrene L1200 (Alternative for MES)
• HyPrene L2000 (Alternative for TDAE, RAE and Black Oil)

Ergon Sustainable Products

• ISCC + Naphthenic Oils – HyPrene Products
• Recycled Oils – NuovoPrene Products
• Bio-Based Oils – EcoPrene Products
• 100% Bio-Based Oils – RBD Vegetable Oils

ERGON IS COMMITTED TO DOING RIGHT WITH ITS PRODUCTS, FOR THE PLANET, BY ITS PEOPLE AND THROUGH ITS PRINCIPLES.

Solutions to Meet Sustainability Targets

Ergon’s latest innovations focus on cleaner naphthenic oils and sustainable products, supporting eco-friendly materials from bio-based sources, such as EcoPrene Process Oils and RBD Vegetable Oils, or recycled sources, such as NuovoPrene Process Oils.

Recognised for Sustainability Excellence

In 2023, Ergon Refining Inc. (ERI), the company’s refinery in Vicksburg, Mississippi, which supplies naphthenic products around the world, received a silver medal from EcoVadis – a global platform that provides sustainability ratings.

Additionally, Ergon International has joined other Ergon Energy & Specialty Solutions companies in obtaining International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC PLUS) status, including for its HyPrene and NuovoPrene products. This certification highlights the company’s commitment to product traceability and recycling.

Helping Customers Meet Evolving Regulations

Ergon conducts Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) for its naphthenic base oils, offering customers comprehensive evaluations of the environmental impacts of these solutions. LCAs serve as valuable resources for reducing environmental footprint and supporting customers in meeting their sustainability goals.

Accelerating Customer Success

Ergon is a service company dedicated to anticipating and meeting needs since 1954. The company transforms molecules into high-value solutions that improve the performance of products people use every day around the world. With its technical expertise and innovation, strategic logistics network and commitment to an exceptional customer experience, Ergon consistently leverages its resources to ensure customer success worldwide. That’s the Ergon way. 

A new proposed standard (WK91069) from ASTM International’s recovered carbon black (rCB) committee aims to dramatically improve production monitoring and productivity for manufacturers. Currently, quality testing for rCB can take as long as 18 hours using an existing method adapted from ASTM’s carbon black standards.

The proposed standard, developed by the committee’s rCB subcommittee, would reduce testing time to just a few hours. According to Pieter Ter Haar, Director of rCB at Circtec and an ASTM member, this change will allow producers to make faster process adjustments, minimise off-spec material and provide end-users with quicker, more reliable results. The initiative reflects an industry effort to enhance efficiency and quality assurance in recovered carbon black production.

Ter Haar said, “The method currently used, which has been adopted from ASTM’s carbon black committee, results in a testing time that can take up to 18 hours. This is very inconvenient for producers for whom this is an important quality parameter.”

Gummiwerk KRAIBURG is advancing its production capabilities through a significant investment in a new, high-performance mixing line for colour compounds. This modernisation initiative underscores the company’s commitment to enhancing operational efficiency, product quality and long-term sustainability.

The state-of-the-art system is engineered to boost production flexibility, improve material consistency and lower energy consumption, aligning with both economic and ecological objectives. To ensure seamless integration, the company has implemented detailed planning that guarantees continuous order fulfilment and supply chain stability throughout the transition.

This upgrade reaffirms Gummiwerk KRAIBURG’s role as a reliable partner for high-performance applications and demonstrates its dedication to maintaining superior quality standards and unwavering production reliability in a competitive market.

Materials science firm Trinseo finalised an agreement on 19 August to establish a recycled polycarbonate production facility within the Zhangjiagang Free Trade Zone. The project represents a total investment of approximately USD 20 million, with its initial phase targeting an annual capacity of 5,000 tonnes. The signing ceremony was attended by Zhangjiagang Municipal Party Committee Secretary Han Wei, Trinseo CEO Frank Bozich and other senior company representatives.

During the event, Secretary Han Wei characterised the project as technologically advanced and well-aligned with the city’s industrial development strategy. He emphasised the municipal government’s ongoing commitment to cultivating a favourable business environment and encouraged further investment in high-value projects. In response, Frank Bozich acknowledged the longstanding support from local authorities and affirmed that the new facility would support regional economic goals and advance circular economy initiatives through innovation.

Trinseo, which established operations in Zhangjiagang in 1998, has invested nearly USD 400 million in the area, developing its largest production base in the Asia-Pacific region. The city has emerged as a significant hub for chemical and new materials industries, hosting 169 large-scale enterprises and 26 Fortune Global 500 companies, with annual output nearing RMB 80 billion. The new Trinseo project is anticipated to contribute to Zhangjiagang’s strategic goal of building a RMB 100 billion-level industrial cluster in chemical new materials.

In a country grappling with mountains of waste and a pressing need for sustainable solutions, one designer in Kanpur is quietly rewriting the rules of urban innovation. Vaishali Biyani, a former recruiter-turned-upcycler, has built a company that transforms discarded truck tyres into striking urban furniture, art installations and public park infrastructure. Her start-up, De’Dzines, operates at the unlikely intersection of circular economy, rural employment and high-concept design. In spaces as diverse as five-star hotels and snowy army outposts, her creations endure and inspire. What began as a curiosity about tyre waste has grown into a bold, scalable vision for environmental reinvention.

In the snow-clad silence of Siachen, India’s highest military outpost, stands a curious piece of furniture made not of wood, nor of steel but from discarded tyres. Two years since it was installed, the chair hasn’t warped, cracked or budged. Even in snowstorms, the furniture is standing strong. It was one of many quiet validations for a project that, to many, still sounds improbable: transforming end-of-life tyres into swings, sculpture parks and stylish indoor planters.

On the dusty fringes of Kanpur, a former industrial powerhouse now known more for its mountains of discarded waste than for its textiles, an unexpected kind of manufacturing is quietly reshaping public parks and luxury hotels. The raw material? Old truck tyres.

At the heart of this transformation is an unlikely entrepreneur. Once immersed in the startup buzz of Delhi, she spent over a decade building a successful recruitment company. But a twist of fate took her to Kanpur, where she spotted something that others had learned to ignore: waste.

“Waste was everywhere, from roads, outside factories to back alleys. But tyres stood out. They were built to last and nobody knew what to do with them,” said Vaishali Biyani, Founder of De’Dzines.

Her shift from the digital corridors of Delhi to the tyre-strewn lanes of Kanpur was anything but planned. “I had no intention of starting over. My recruitment firm was doing well. But when I relocated in 2017, I began noticing the sheer scale of unutilised waste, especially tyres,” she admitted.

What followed was a period of grassroots immersion. By day, she continued recruitment work. By night, she sat with tyre scrap dealers, learning the material inside out. She recalls walking through filthy lanes where tyres lay in heaps, asking questions most dealers never expected.

In 2019, she registered her company De’Dzines and formally launched commercial operations in 2021. Her goal was to upcycle truck tyres into handmade furniture, planters and urban sculptures.

The choice of truck tyres was deliberate as they comprise better rubber composition, more wire and stronger polymers.

The early days weren’t easy. Setting up in Kanpur came with its own cultural and logistical hurdles. “People here had never heard of upcycling.

They thought I was collecting garbage, and when I tried to hire people, nobody wanted to work with tyres. Even explaining the concept was a battle,” recalled Biyani.

Her 20,000-square-foot workshop in Kanpur became ground zero for a new type of production rooted in low-tech and high-ingenuity processes. “We use small tools, not big machines. Everything is handmade, from cutting, cleaning to polishing. Each product is crafted by a team of 15 full-time workers, all from nearby villages. For larger orders, the team expands to 50,” explained Biyani.

She recalled that hiring was a nightmare. Hence, she trained locals, most of whom had never worked in manufacturing. Today, they handle everything from wire removal to final finishing.

CHANGING PERCEPTIONS

The idea didn’t start in a studio but in scrap yards and municipal back alleys, where tyres lay heaped, burnt, buried and forgotten. Starting with a handful of used tyres, the founder and his lean team began crafting swings and planters by hand. Today, the company consumes between 10–12 tonnes of tyres monthly, rising significantly during major government projects.

“We usually do two big waste to wonder parks each year. If it’s a two-acre project, it could require tonnes of tyres. We’ve done parks where the government provided tyres themselves; we just deducted that cost from the tender,” said Biyani.

She added that in these early partnerships, the team didn’t have the luxury of choosing tyre types. But now, they get to select what is needed. The company now focuses on nylon-based truck tyres, especially from buses and transport bodies.

Changing consumer perception was perhaps the biggest challenge as tyres are dirty and smelly. People don’t even want to touch them. So she launched a direct-to-consumer (D2C) model to test market acceptance. The Covid-19 lockdowns, surprisingly, helped.

“Everyone moved online. I started listing products on Amazon before I even had a website. The response was overwhelming. People liked what they saw and left great reviews. That gave us confidence to double down,” averred Biyani.

But sustainability messaging wasn’t the silver bullet as Indians don’t pay extra for eco-friendly, she contended. The company had to position the products for its durability, aesthetics and value.

She recalls the initial scepticism from customers divulging, “We had people asking that won’t this smell or will it leave black marks. So we added multiple layers of polish, built a hygiene protocol and offered an easy return policy. If you didn’t like the product, you could send it back. No questions asked,” she explained.

The strategy worked. The brand slowly built a reputation not just for environmental responsibility but also for reliability and craftsmanship.

UPCYCLED PRODUCT

At De’Dzines, each tyre begins its second life with a rigorous cleaning process. Steel wires are removed, often manually. Then comes cutting, which is a precision job to ensure the structural integrity of the product. After shaping, the rubber is treated with safe, non-toxic polish and reinforced with recycled wood or steel depending on the final design.

“The design philosophy is simple. Form follows function but beauty matters. We don’t want the product to scream ‘I’m made of waste’. We want it to feel like something you’d be proud to place in your home or office,” she explained.

Some products take two days to complete. Others, like swing seats or large benches, can take over a week. The company isn’t chasing mass production but chasing quality, story and purpose.

While European and Australian companies offered to export tyre scrap to her for free, she refused. “The logistics defeat the purpose. Sustainability isn’t just about materials; it’s also about carbon footprint. Why ship tyres across oceans when Uttar Pradesh is full of them,” said Biyani.

She signed MOUs with municipal corporations across Agra, Lucknow, Prayagraj and Gorakhpur. These urban bodies provided used tyres from fleet vehicles.

While scrap tyres are generally expensive in India, this circular sourcing model keeps costs manageable. “The tyre scrap market in India is fragmented, expensive and full of middlemen. That’s why we prefer working directly with municipal bodies,” noted Biyani.

For projects with unpredictable demand, she still sources from the open scrap market.

BACKYARDS TO FIVE-STAR LOBBIES

As public confidence grew, so did the scale of projects. De’Dzines moved from retail to B2B, then to government partnerships. One milestone was supplying planters to the Shangri-La Eros Hotel in Delhi. “The hotel placed them in every room and throughout the gardens. That proved we could pitch to luxury hospitality,” said Biyani.

Today, De’Dzines has designed and completed over 10 public parks in partnership with local governments. It handles everything from concept to installation. It’s no longer just about products but transforming spaces.

In one project near Prayagraj, she repurposed over 4,000 tyres to create an entire play zone that included benches, see-saws, tyre walls and garden edges. “We turned waste into wonder. The joy on children’s faces is our biggest endorsement,” quipped Biyani.

For a country drowning in waste yet starved for sustainable innovation, De’Dzines offers a blueprint that blends environmental purpose with rural employment and scalable design. Her journey is also a quiet rebuke to the idea that innovation only happens in technological hubs.

“I didn’t come here to start a recycling revolution. I was just curious about where tyres go when they die. That one question changed everything,” she contended.

As she trains her team for their next urban park project, surrounded by stacks of discarded rubber, the message is clear that even the dirtiest waste can have a second life with beauty and durability.

HANDMADE, YET SCALABLE

One might imagine such a business struggling with scale. After all, each piece, be it a sculpture or a chair, is largely handmade. But ingenuity, it turns out, is as core to the company’s identity as sustainability.

A telling moment came during an export order. A client requested 500 customised planters with a 20-day delivery timeline. “It wasn’t our design. It was theirs and very detailed. So we built a single mould for it, trained 50 people and finished in 15 days instead of 20,” recalled a confident Biyani.

This success paved the way for future scale-ups. The team has since developed moulds for several recurring products while still retaining flexibility for custom projects.

“We now know how to train fast, hire locally and deliver in volume. It’s a hybrid of craft and light manufacturing,” she added.

Alluding to working with different government bodies, Biyani spoke candidly about the public sectors’ promise and bureaucracy. “Municipal corporations are straightforward. We sign a simple MOU that lets us collect tyres for two or five years. In return, we give them a rate list for furniture or sculptures when needed. It’s simple and direct,” she contended.

Working with state transport undertakings like BEST or DTC, however, is a different story as their procurement is through massive tenders.

So, for now, she prefers to work with cities like Prayagraj, where the team completed nine junction designs and two parks in just 45 days.

LOOKING AHEAD

Much of the company’s growth has come not from sales teams but from serendipity and design.

One of the most fruitful connections came via social media, when a CSR head from Bridgestone discovered the team’s Instagram posts. Today, the company is working with Bridgestone on a multi-year sculptural design project in Pune.

Her vision now extends beyond upcycling. “We’re exploring modular designs that can be assembled onsite for large-scale installations,” she revealed. There are also plans to set up satellite workshops in other parts of UP using the same village employment model.

Eventually, she wants to export as she believes that the products should sit in parks in Dubai or public plazas in Europe. Not because they’re Indian or upcycled but because they’re beautiful and built to last.

As demand grows, the company is moving into newer segments. The next frontier is hospitality.

“We’re now working with luxury hotels, resorts and even army cantonments. Our products survive storms in Siachen. They survive monsoons in Goa. That’s our pitch: sustainable, durable and different,” quipped a cheerful Biyani.

She’s also gearing up for a major hospitality exhibition in Greater Noida from 3–6 August, where the team will launch a new line of indoor furniture made from upcycled tyres.

But challenges remain; chief among them is pricing. “A virgin plastic chair is cheaper than our tyre-based one. Convincing someone to pay a premium for sustainability is our biggest hurdle,” she contended.

There is a poetic irony in transforming black industrial waste into playful swings and public sculptures. It is perhaps this unlikely fusion of function and imagination that distinguishes the designer.

In places like Prayagraj, Pune and even Siachen, tyres are no longer confined to roads; they are finding new meaning as symbols of transformation.

For a small design company with ambitious ideas, it seemed that the path forward might indeed be paved, quite literally, with rubber.