Sumitomo to Collaborate with U.S. Carbon Recycling Firm LanzaTech

We are pleased to collaborate with Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd. and Sumitomo Riko Company Limited to develop recycling technologies, paving the way for a circular economy.

In November 2022, Sumitomo Riko announced a joint development agreement with LanzaTech Global, Inc. (‟LanzaTech”; Nasdaq: LNZA), a US-based carbon recycling firm known for its expertise in carbon capture and utilization (CCU)  technology. Along with Sumitomo Rubber, we will be taking part in this joint development. The three companies will collaborate with LanzaTech on the joint development, aiming to pioneer groundbreaking technologies that enable a circular economy, transforming waste materials, including rubber, resin, urethane, and metal, into valuable resources.

The Sumitomo Electric Group “2030 VISION” calls for company-wide efforts to promote carbon-free and other businesses in order to achieve a “Green Society.” Additionally, the Mid-term Management Plan 2025 promotes initiatives to realize a circular economy. To date, we have promoted activities to collect used products and recycle them as raw materials.

This time around, we are taking another step forward to accomplish a circular economy for raw materials. Together with Sumitomo Riko and Sumitomo Rubber, we are pushing ahead with the development of new technologies in collaboration with LanzaTech. We aim to leverage LanzaTech’s biorecycling technology to turn waste materials, such as tires and resins, into isoprene, which can be used as new rubber materials.

This will be achieved by gasifying the waste materials and purifying the resulting gas, and then putting them through a fermentation process that transforms the gas into new raw materials. Our ultimate goal is to work with raw material producers to explore the feasibility of establishing a recycling technology that enables the reuse of isoprene as materials for rubber and resin. Since we manufacture number of products made of resin and metal, such as wiring harnesses and power/communication cables, we will also consider recycling the metals recovered during the gasifying process and reusing them as raw materials.

Through the joint technological development, we will accelerate our contribution to the achievement of a “Green Society” through our products and services. Collaborative R&D framework

Source: Sumitomo