China’s Fushun Petrochemical starts up oil-extended SBR production

Fushun, China – Fushun Petrochemical, a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), has produced its first qualified batch of “oil-extended styrene-butadiene rubber” (SBR1712), marking a 'breakthrough' first-ever entry into this product area.

The development follows an R&D programme launched in May 2023 to localise the production of rubber processing oils, said a 27 Aug statement by the local Panjin government.

According to the report, Fushun Petrochemical formulated several products, including types based on environmentally friendly TDAE oils by June 2023.

Through replacing imports with “in-house heavy distillate oils”, the company has reduced its SBR1712 production costs by about Yuan400 per tonne (€48/tonne), the report added.

According to the report, the research team addressed key technical challenges, such as the continuous and stable preparation of high-Mooney latex through over 40 pilot experiments and achieved “stable production of the pilot product.”

In addition, in August, the producer invested Yuan150,000 in retrofitting existing facilities, adding pipelines and repurposing equipment to complete the process upgrade.

“Faced with the challenge of translating laboratory findings to the plant, the team meticulously developed detailed operating procedures, emergency response plans, and quality control protocols,” said the local report.

Furthermore, the team conducted multiple rounds of simulations and specialised training to ensure the smooth implementation of industrial production.

Due to the limited availability of domestically produced processing oil, the Fushun team “urgently imported” 50 tonnes of oil to support trial production.

Industrial trial production began 8 Aug, producing “qualified latex” in its first trial. The post-processing system was successfully started up 13 Aug.

Fushun noted that SBR1712 can be used in high-end fields such as green tires, conveyor belts, and shoe materials.