BERWYN, Pa.—Trinseo has signed a letter of intent with Moscow-based ETB Catalytic Technologies to collaborate on the development of bio-based 1,3-butadiene.
ETB and Trinseo will jointly explore opportunities to scale up ETB's unique single-stage process to produce bio-based 1,3-butadiene from ethanol using polyfunctional catalyst technology.
Trinseo, with ETB's support, will conduct a feasibility study to explore the construction of a dedicated pilot plant at a Trinseo manufacturing location in Europe. The pilot plant would include a purification unit to achieve a purity target of 99.7 percent for bio-based 1,3-butadiene in support of green tire production, Trinseo said.
"The partnership with ETB represents the next milestone in Trinseo's transformation into a sustainable solutions provider," Trinseo said in a news release. "Bio-based butadiene is considered a vital first component in the value chain for enabling the replacement of fossil-based raw materials with renewable sources, thereby reducing the environmental footprint of consumer products, such as high-performance tires throughout their lifecycle."
In the past six months, Trinseo achieved International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) and the company said it became the first synthetic rubber provider globally to gain mass balance certification. Trinseo recently announced a business collaboration with BASF in the area of circular feedstocks, with the aim of strengthening the efforts of both companies in the development and management of styrene with an improved environmental profile.
