Asahi Kasei, a Japanese multinational firm recently concluded a partnership agreement with Shell (Shell Eastern Petroleum (Pte) Ltd.) on November 23rd wherein the latter will be offering high-quality premium sustainable butadiene derived from plastic waste and biomass.
Asahi Kasei will be utilizing sustainable butadiene for the manufacturing of solution-polymerized styrene-butadiene rubber (S-SBR) at its Singapore plant within the closure of fiscal 2021.
As per the Japanese firm’s resources, a signing ceremony was held on at the “Creating the Plastic Circular Economy in Singapore: Journey from Vision to Reality” event that was held on Bukom Island, Singapore.
The Japanese firm is in pursuit of strategizing an eco-friendly tire (high-performance fuel-efficient tires) with the aid of a sustainable solution-polymerized styrene-butadiene rubber (S-SBR). This is in regard to the global growing mandate for utilization of eco-friendly tires in wake of stricter environmental guidelines and heightened environmental awareness.
With desirable features and its ability to maintain safety performance, the S-SBR synthetic material is well-suited for the manufacturing of eco-friendly tires.
With heightened efforts for decarbonization aiding in the accomplishment of carbon neutrality within 2050, the automotive arena is shifting towards electric vehicles. The tire industry is also following in the same direction progressing towards better fuel efficiency and wear resistance in the case of modern tires.
Asahi Kasei Mass Balance Procedure
Asahi Kasei has sought to shift to sustainable feedstock in order to curb the CO2 emissions via its supply chain. Shell is also seeking to create sustainable butadiene with the aid of ‘mass balance method in two ways at Bukom, Singapore. In the first method, plastic waste will be converted into pyrolysis oil and feeding it to the naphtha cracker, and the other is using bio-feedstock as a naphtha cracker feed.
By doing so as per internal research, Asahi Kasei will be the first global firm to utilize as well as set a trend of butadiene derived from plastic waste, and also the first Japanese firm to utilize butadiene derived from biomass, for S-SBR production.
What’s more interesting is that this will not just be limited to production and then sales part, as a trend will continue throughout the life cycle of tires from materials, manufacturing process, use (driving), disposal, and recycling, the proportion of CO2 emissions in the case of internal combustion engine vehicles is highest in the utilization phase.
In the illustration of electric vehicles, in contrast, use-phase emissions are compacted by a wide margin, making emissions from resources like that of S-SBR relatively developed.
Asahi Kasei thus anticipates making a noteworthy contribution to compact CO2 emissions via the supply chain through the production of S-SBR utilizing sustainable butadiene.
Additionally, to improve the performance of its S-SBR merchandise and diminish the CO2 emissions across the product life cycle toward the goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050, Asahi Kasei’s core objective is to be a global leading sustainable partner for its customers.
