biomass

Yokohama Rubber announced that it has developed the world’s first technology capable of efficiently producing butadiene from a biomass. The breakthrough was achieved by the “Bio-monomer Production Laboratory” jointly established with the RIKEN and Zeon Corporation. Butadiene is a core raw material used to make synthetic rubber used in automobile tires and other products. Currently, industrial butadiene is produced as a by-product of naphtha pyrolysis. As such, the development of an independent butadiene production technology will help reduce dependence on petroleum and lower carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, a major cause of global warming