Zeon and Yokohama Rubber partner on “bench” facility for plant-derived butadiene production
Zeon Corporation and The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. have agreed to establish a bench facility to demonstrate technology for producing butadiene from “ethanol derived from plant-based and other sustainable materials with high efficiency”. The facility will be installed at Zeon’s Tokuyama Plant (Shunan City, Yamaguchi Prefecture) and is scheduled to begin operating in 2026. It will enable the production of a certain amount of butadiene and facilitate the collection of various data that will be used to establish mass production. Yokohama defines a “bench facility” as a “large-scale facility to acquire the data necessary to transition to a continuous demonstration facility (pilot facility) for commercialization.”