Zeon completes 'highly efficient' bio-butadiene demo plant in Japan

Tokyo — Zeon Corp. has completed the construction of a bench-scale facility to demonstrate technology for producing butadiene from ethanol derived from plant-based and other sustainable materials.

Set for full-scale operation in January 2027, the unit is one of two R&D projects launched between Zeon and Yokohama Rubber Co. (YRC) and supported by Japan’s new energy and industrial technology agency NEDO.

The two companies aim to achieve the “social implementation” of the technology for the "highly efficient production" of bio-based butadiene and isoprene by mid-2030, said Zeon 4 Aug.

As part of the process, Zeon will develop a prototype polybutadiene rubber using butadiene made at the bench-scale facility.

YRC will then develop prototype tires using the butadiene rubber and conduct driving tests to collect data for a large-scale demonstration.

The partners expect to commercialise the technology by 2034.

Furthermore, Zeon and YRC are also working on a second NEDO project supported by Institute of Science Tokyo and RIKEN.

The project will involve the development of a “biotechnology” to directly produce butadiene and isoprene from plant-based materials.

The proposed process will be "supplementing the supply of core chemicals used to produce synthetic rubber in the closed-loop recycling of rubber and tires," Zeon said.

That project, too, is scheduled for commercialisation by 2034.