Feature: Rubber and process technologies drive Versalis forward

Interview published in the March/April issue of ERJ

As the petrochemicals arm of Italian oil & gas giant Eni, Versalis is focusing on developing new technologies to improve its rubber portfolio, upping the ante in the tire-rubber industry and stepping into the largely-unexplored waters of bio-rubber production.

Versalis expects to launch a joint rubber product with EVE Rubber and Ecombine – both owned by the Chinese machinery manufacturer Mesnac – in 2017, which it expects to offer very high tire performance features.

“This is a technology platform that will use Versalis’ elastomer production knowhow and EVE’s technology which allow us to wet-mix the elastomers with fillers while still in solution,” explained Sergio Lombardini, director of research, technology and engineering of Versalis.

In what may seem like a very simple solution, wet-mixing delivers compounds with “incredible performances compared with dry compounds”, according to Lombardini.

That is because it allows a much more “intimate” mixing in the compound to stop filler-with-filler interaction and allow only filler-elastomer interaction.

The solution, according to the Versalis director, gives a huge improvement to the tire performance in both rolling resistance and grip.

The partners are now making these compounds on a pilot scale, with a pilot unit in China and one at the Versalis site in Ravenna, Italy.

“In the meantime, we are engineering two elastomer modifying plants for the combined technology for the Qingdao site – which is owned by Ecombine – and an additional solvent-treatment recycling unit, which is needed to make this combined technology work,” said Lombardini.

Versalis, continued Lombardini, has already delivered one of these two plant engineering designs and construction work has started.

“The units we are delivering for the site are solution SBR and polybutadiene, modified technologies and the solvent-treatment unit,” he added.

The Qingdao plant, which Lombardini described as “a small complex but the first in the world”, is to launch in 2017, with the overall capacity of 130 kilotonne per annum (ktpa).

On the business side of the partnership, Versalis intends to commercialise this technology for its key tire-producing customers.

While the Chinese partners will sell the product in the already-large and growing Chinese market, Versalis believes that it will have a major work to do to prove the product to its “more established customers”.

Capacity challenge

Among other challenges facing Versalis, and any other supplier, is running plants at full capacity with the highest margins.

And to achieve that, a company should have a flexible products portfolio and the capability to renew it, explained Lombardini, citing a new EPDM project at Versalis.

“We recently completed the first phase of the redesign of our entire EPDM portfolio.

“For EPDM we have a slurry technology – which can make things that other technologies cannot do, such as high molecular weight. But the process can also introduce some negative impacts on the quality, such as the residual content of catalysts,” explained the Versalis boss.

In its redesign, Versalis has introduced a new catalytic system, which is capable of producing high-standard EPDM and has substituted most of its EPDM products.

The company announced the production of a pilot-level bio-butadiene from sugar in cooperation with San Diego-based bio-engineering firm Genomatica.

Genomatica synthetises and genetically modifies the microorganisms for fermentation from first-generation sugar to 1.3 butanediol (BDO). Versalis, then, purifies the BDO in a two-reaction process, which involves dehydration, to butadiene.

“We have tested the quality of the butadiene and it does work, i.e. we can produce elastomers from it,” he added.

Naptha prices

But with the current level of oil prices, does bio-rubber realistically have a chance?

“It is a difficult battle”, replied Lombardini, “Today, virgin naphtha price and ethane prices allow the liquid feedstock to be more convenient for crackers – and there’s enough volumes of butadiene at very competitive prices.”

“In any case, bio-butadiene is a renewable raw material. And I think this is a value, which should of course not be forced but the market will consider in the future.”

Lombardini described the pilot-scale production as a breakthrough in the bio-rubber industry, saying: “Today, bio-butadiene on an industrial scale does not exist in the market. We have for the first time produced a significant quantity of polybutadiene from sugar, and we are now developing two catalysts for this project.”

According to the official, while the cost is not competitive with the price of oil today, the material can prove competitive once oil is around $60-$70 per barrel.

“We are not worried about the oil prices right now, as by the time that we will need to progress to an industrial level of production, the conditions will have changed,” said Lombardini.

He forecast that it would roughly take four years to reach an industrial production stage, once the company has made a decision to mass-produce this innovative material.

Pirelli project

Versalis has also been involved in another bio project which involves tire-maker Pirelli and desert shrub – guayule – rubber.

“In that project, we’ve just given Pirelli the rubber to test. And we are developing the technology on our own,” said Lombardini.

“We are now studying a multipurpose pilot project, to test the extraction with water and solvents,” he added, “So if we manage to extract rubber with water, the resins will stay with the rubber and that makes it a very intimate mixing”.

Such rubber will have “outstanding results”, continued the Versalis director, adding that Pirelli has proved that the resin in the rubber was the main factor in these results.

“With guayule, our approach is quite interesting – or at least I think so,” noted Lombardini.

“We are looking into the full exploitation of the biomass from the crop. That is to produce rubber and resin and also, sugar from the residual biomass.

“So with this technology, we can produce sugar that can fit our bio-butadiene technology. And this is an example of our integration objectives.”