Bringing up butadiene: 5 entities investing in a more sustainable monomer

When it comes to sourcing sustainable raw materials, major players across the rubber industry are looking to butadiene.

You read that right.

While over 96 percent of butadiene is produced as a co-product of steam cracking paraffinic hydrocarbons for ethylene production, according to the American Chemistry Council (which also noted that this process is an enclosed system with pollution control equipment regulated by the U.S. EPA), companies are gearing their R&D efforts toward making this critical material for synthetic rubber more sustainable.

Petrochemical companies, tire makers and synthetic rubber producers alike are investing in this endeavor, from commercial facilities to pilot plants and demo facilities.

Here are five entities, in no particular order, who are making moves for more sustainable butadiene.

One company that appears to be leading the way to bio-butadiene is Synthos S.A.

In December 2023, Synthos launched two partnerships with Kumho Tire Co. and OMV, an Austria-based oil, gas and petrochemicals company, for the development of sustainable sources of butadiene to be used in high-performance tires.

And those partnerships have been playing out in 2024.

With Kumho, the Oswiecim, Poland-based synthetic rubber producer is conducting a joint R&D project for the development of neodymium-butadiene rubber by using bio-butadiene to expand the use of environmentally friendly SR in tire making.

And with OMV, Synthos signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate on the long-term supply of sustainable raw materials, also with a particular focus on sustainable butadiene for tire production.

This agreement calls for cooperation on the manufacturing of butadiene using palm fatty acid distillate and used cooking oil as feedstocks, as well as circular butadiene derived from pyrolysis oil from end-of-life tires.

The firm also continues its investment in the first commercial bio-butadiene plant, located at Synthos' headquarters, which is expected to produce 40,000 metric tons per year when complete. Construction of the facility began in 2023 and is expected to be complete sometime in 2025.

Synthos isn't the only company with a new facility dedicated to sustainable butadiene.

After more than 10 years of R&D work among partners, Michelin announced in January the opening of the "first industrial-scale" demonstration plant for the production of butadiene derived from bio-ethanol.

The demo plant is a joint project between Michelin, French institute IFP Energies Nouvelles and clean-fuel company Axens. It boasts a total investment of more than $86 million and production capacity between 20 and 30 metric tons per year, "a scale which will enable rapid industrial development," Michelin said.

The plant was built within the framework of the BioButterfly project—which aims to develop commercial production of butadiene from plant-based feedstocks—at Michelin's site in Bassens, France.

Philippe Vinesse, Michelin's executive vice president of R&D, said at the time that BioButterfly offers a "wonderful opportunity" to support the tire maker's goal to use 100 percent renewed or recycled materials in its tires by 2050.

Bridgestone Americas Inc. recently began work on a new pilot plant in Akron to produce butadiene, getting a boost from the U.S. Department of Energy to the tune of about $9.2 million toward the project.

While the butadiene produced at this pilot plant will be sourced from ethanol, the technology is intended to create "near-circular" tire production, as it entails using old tires to produce the ethanol used for the butadiene.

The pilot plant will be located within the existing Bridgestone Polymer Engineering Pilot Center, which is 35 acres in size and has 49 employees, according to Davis Adams-Smith, director of public relations. The actual size of the pilot plant and its dimensions are yet to be determined.

But this isn't the only move Bridgestone made this year for a more sustainable monomer.

In the spring, the tire maker announced that it would produce more than 5,000 Firestone Firehawk IndyCar racing tires that incorporated the monomers bio-styrene and butadiene, which were to be sourced from waste residue of palm oil processing and are ISCC-certified for supply chain transparency and traceability.

Bridgestone claimed the inclusion of the two monomers allows the tire maker to prove that it won't sacrifice performance for greater sustainability.

This also follows the tire maker's partnership with Shell in 2023 that allowed for the use of bio-butadiene in its racing tires.

Kumho Petrochemical Co. Ltd. signed an MOU with two companies in March—Tongsuh Petrochemical Corp. Ltd. and SK Geo Centric Co. Ltd.—to convert acrylonitrile (AN) and butadiene from the existing raw material supply chain into bio-monomers.

Under the agreed structure, Tongsuh will supply bio-AN using SK Geo Centric's bio-propylene as raw material, and SK Geo Centric will supply bio-butadiene to Kumho Petrochemical.

Through this MOU, Kumho Petrochemical said it's seeking a bio-monomer supply chain to expand its environmentally friendly product portfolio.

The strategy includes obtaining ISCC-Plus certification for synthetic rubbers—SBR, NBR, HSR, SBL and NBL—and styrenic resins.

"Kumho Petrochemical will accelerate the diversification of its environmentally friendly product portfolio based on a sustainable bio raw material supply chain," Kumho Petrochemical CEO Baek Jong-hoon said in a statement earlier this year.

While not a company, the city of Akron—the Rubber Capital of the World, in case anyone forgot—deserves some credit on the bio-butadiene front.

Over the summer, Ohio won $51 million from the federal government that will fund the nation's hub for sustainable polymer development, an initiative led by the Greater Akron Chamber—after two years and two attempts, Crain's Cleveland Business' Dan Shingler reported.

The Rubber City beat out nearly 500 other applicants and is one of 12 hubs nationwide to get the funding, which will support seven local initiatives, including five commercialization projects.

And one of those five commercialization projects is the manufacturing of sustainable bio-based butadiene for the production of eco-friendly synthetic rubber.

While this project will be run by California-based BioVerde, the company will establish operations in Northeast Ohio, according to Brian Anderson, chamber vice president of the Polymer Industry Cluster.