Eco-friendly butyl rubber production process

Specialty chemicals company LANXESS has successfully concluded the pilot phase for a highly efficient production process for butyl rubber. The past seven years saw the company working on a fundamentally new technology for a more sustainable production. An important step in this process was the testing of the new technology in two pilot plants at its production site in Zwijndrecht, Belgium since spring 2012.

The production process of butyl rubber is highly complex and requires process steps at very low temperatures and significant usage of steam. The new process technology is significantly more energy and cost efficient.

LANXESS now intends to mothball the pilot plants after successful development of the new production process. A labour consultation process was started locally to align potential impacts on staff with unions and employees.

Importance of butyl rubber

Butyl rubber is a polymer with unique physical and chemical properties. Its impermeability to gases and moisture makes it ideal for manufacturing modern tires. The range of other butyl rubber applications is very diverse: from pharmaceutical closures all the way to chewing gum and protective clothing.

The raw materials for making butyl rubber are isobutene and isoprene. These two components are polymerised at –100 °C, the temperature at which butyl rubber forms. It can then be dried, pressed into blocks and sold. The rubber also can be dissolved in hexane and converted into halobutyl rubber by means of halogenation, the reaction with chlorine or bromine. Only a few manufacturers worldwide have mastered this complex process . LANXESS is one of them.

By far the most of the butyl rubber produced at LANXESS goes into tyre manufacturing. Butyl rubber is used for tyre inner tubes and for the rubber coating, or "inner liner", inside tubeless tyres. It enables a tyre to hold the air and protects the embedded steel cord from exposure to moisture. With this high-performance rubber product, LANXESS helps to extend tyre service life, reduce fuel consumption and thus also minimise CO2 emissions.

Butyl rubbers are used in tyre inner liners – the innermost, air- and humidity-impermeable layer of a tubeless tyre. They keep tyre pressure constant over a long period, thus making vehicles safer and ensuring they consume less fuel and therefore produce fewer emissions. Special applications include protective clothing and medical devices. The use of butyl in chewing gum production represents one particularly interesting niche market.

Besides its Zwijndrecht plant LANXESS operates butyl production facilities in Sarnia/Canada and Singapore.

According to LANXESS forecasts, the global market for butyl rubber will grow 3% a year over the next 15 years. The key growth region is Asia, led by the particularly rapid market expansion in China and India.

The Butyl Rubber business unit is part of LANXESS’ Performance Polymers segment, which recorded sales of EUR 4.49 billion in fiscal 2013. LANXESS is a leading specialty chemicals company with sales of EUR 8.3 billion in 2013 and roughly 17,300 employees in 31 countries. The company is currently represented at 52 production sites worldwide. The core business of LANXESS is the development, manufacturing and marketing of plastics, rubber, intermediates and specialty chemicals.