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| December 5, 2008 |
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| Mitsubishi Chemical Develops Brand New Technology to Produce Butadiene |
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| Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation |
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Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation ("MCC"; Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President: Yoshimitsu Kobayashi) has developed a brand new technology to manufacture butadiene from butenes using proprietary catalyst and examined it at a pilot plant in its Mizushima Plant in Japan. Since MCC has now had a firm prospect to industrialize the new production technology, MCC plans to produce the process design package within the next year.
Butadiene is mainly used as a monomer in the production of a wide range of polymers and co-polymers, as well as in the production of several intermediate chemicals. The largest single use for butadiene is in the production of styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) which is principally used in the manufacture of tyres. The demand for butadiene has expanded recently. MCC’s new production technology will enable butadiene supplying capacity to meet the rising demand for all butadiene-related products.
Butadiene occupies about 40% of crude C4s, which comprise about 11% of the fraction that is obtained by naphtha cracking (equivalent to approximately 30% of ethylene), and the substance is produced by a method of extraction from crude C4s.
Although butenes, that occupies about 30% of crude C4s after butadiene is extracted, are used for various purposes, the volume of butenes that are consumed as fuel and raw materials for naphtha cracking are not a few. The new technology uses these butenes as raw material to produce butadiene, and the technology can be applied not only to those butenes which are obtained by naphtha cracking, but also to those which are obtained from the FCC (fluid catalytic cracking) facilities in petroleum refineries (including next-generation FCC facilities with higher yields of acquiring olefins).
While there are currently few commercialized technologies to produce butadiene other than extracting it from crude C4s with a naphtha cracker, MCC will explore the production of butadiene by itself, utilizing the technology’s high cost competitiveness and, at the same time, plans to license the technology to those companies that plan to produce butadiene using butenes to be produced by the many naphtha cracker and FCC facilities in Japan and abroad. MCC will therefore initiate discussions with the above-mentioned companies, companies who are interested in cooperating in the butadiene production business, engineering companies, and others.
MCC has positioned butadiene-based C4 chemicals business such as 1, 4-butandiol and its derivatives as one of the existing growth businesses in the growth strategy, and plans to further strengthen this business through the application of the new butadiene production technology.
| For further information, please contact |
Public Relations and Investor Relations Department
Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation |
| Tel: +81-(0)3-6414-3730 |
Concerning technology licensing and other business matters
C4 Derivatives Department
Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation |
| Tel: +81-(0)3-6414-3248 |
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