Zeon Completes Facility for Plant-based Butadiene Production

Zeon Corporation (Zeon; head office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Tetsuya Toyoshima) has completed construction of a bench-scale facility at its Tokuyama Plant (Shunan City, Yamaguchi Prefecture) to demonstrate technology for highly efficient production of butadiene from ethanol derived from plant-based and other sustainable materials. Construction of the facility began in July 2025. This technology will advance the realization of a carbon-neutral society through the use of non-fossil resources and enhance business sustainability by establishing a new, naphtha-independent method of sourcing raw materials. The facility is scheduled to begin full-scale operation in January 2027 toward achieving commercialization by 2034…

This project is one of two R&D themes being undertaken by Zeon and The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. (Yokohama Rubber; Chairman and CEO: Masataka Yamaishi) and supported by NEDO’s Green Innovation Fund Projects. The two companies aim to achieve the social implementation in the 2030s of technology for the highly efficient production of butadiene and isoprene from plant-based and other sustainable materials. Zeon will develop a prototype polybutadiene rubber (butadiene rubber) using butadiene made at the bench-scale facility. Yokohama Rubber will then develop prototype tires using the butadiene rubber and conduct driving tests to collect data for a large-scale demonstration…

Source: Zeon