GERMANY-based Lanxess will produce the first sugar cane-based EPDM at its plant in Brazil by the year end. It will utilise sugar cane-based ethylene from Braskem to produce what it says will be several hundred tonnes of the bio-based EPDM.
EPDM is normally produced with the two raw materials ethylene and propylene, which are based on crude oil. As an alternative, Lanxess plans to use ethylene produced entirely from the renewable raw material sugar cane. In this process, ethanol is obtained by means of dehydration from Brazilian sugar cane. Chemical firm Braskem will supply the existing Lanxess EPDM plant in Triunfo with the ethylene by pipeline.
Triunfo currently produces 40,000 tonnes/year of regular EPDM rubber and it is expected that the first batches of the product Keltan Eco will amount to several hundred tonnes. The company’s other EPDM production sites are based in Geleen, the Netherlands, Marl, Germany, and Orange, US. All EPDM grades will be sold in the future under the brand name Keltan.
EPDM is used above all in the automotive industry but also in the plastics modification, cable and wire, construction and oil additives industries. Its properties include very low density, good resistance to heat, oxidation, chemicals and weathering as well as good electrical insulation properties.
In addition, Lanxess is already seeking alternative sources to produce butyl rubber, which is used predominantly in the tyre industry. Together with US-based Gevo, Lanxess is developing isobutene from renewable resources starting with corn. Isobutene is a key raw material needed in the manufacture of butyl rubber.(PRA)
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