Modern butyl rubber plant now operational

At an official ceremony attended by around 400 guests, LANXESS inaugurated its new butyl rubber plant on Jurong Island in Singapore on schedule. The specialty chemicals company has invested approximately EUR 400 million in the plant, which will have a capacity of 100,000 metric tonnes once fully operational. The plant will create about 160 highly qualified new jobs that will mainly be filled locally. The facility is the most modern of its kind in the Asian region and will produce premium halobutyl rubber, as well as regular butyl rubber.

LANXESS is the first butyl rubber manufacturer to have a wholly-owned global presence. The newly opened plant joins existing butyl rubber plants in Sarnia, Canada, and Zwijndrecht, Belgium. This means that the specialty chemicals company now has state-of-the-art facilities on three continents. The butyl rubber facility in Singapore went into operation in the first quarter of 2013 and is being ramped up gradually. Commercial production will start in the third quarter of this year. The facility is expected to achieve full capacity in 2015.

“This is the largest investment in the company’s history, and underlines the importance of Asia as a location for our synthetic rubber business,” said Axel C. Heitmann, LANXESS’ Chairman of the Board of Management. “We have clearly built this plant with the future of mobility in mind because we think and act long-term.”

Megatrend mobility
The butyl rubber market is expected to grow on average by 5 percent in the coming years, with the main driving force being the megatrend mobility. The tyre industry accounts for around three-quarters of sales at LANXESS’ butyl rubber business unit and more than 50 percent of sales is generated in Asia.

For example, passenger cars in China and India alone are expected to more than triple within the next 15 years, mainly due to a growing middle-class in these two countries. In addition, there is a clear trend towards the use of radial or tubeless tyres for buses and trucks in India and China, which is changing the face of commercialmobility. Modern radial tyres require an inner liner made of halobutyl rubber, which helps keep tyre pressure constant for longer because of its impermeability to gases, thus saving fuel and reducing CO2 emissions.
A new application for bromobutyl rubber, a type of halobutyl, is in the tread of tyres. It enhances the characteristics of tyres by improving both grip and the associated wet braking performance without compromising  rolling resistance.

Another use for halobutyl rubber is in pharmaceutical closures. This special-purpose rubber is even required by law in some countries. To date, pharmaceuticals account for some 10 percent of LANXESS butyl business. Other applications for butyl rubber are protective clothing, shoe soles, adhesives and chewing gum. Its impermeability to gas and resistance to chemicals has also proven valuable in vehicle air conditioning systems and tank linings.

Highly complex production process

The manufacture of butyl rubber is highly complex and involves process steps at temperatures ranging from minus 100 to plus 200 degrees Celsius. The current production process used for butyl rubber has been upgraded and has been implemented in Singapore.

Around 10 percent of the total investment has gone towards technologies that make the butyl rubber plant more environmentally friendly. For example, significantly less steam is used in the manufacturing process than in comparable facilities, leading to lower energy consumption. Chemical compounds from the production process are treated in state-of-the-art thermal off gas uNike Jordan Superfly 2017