Sumitomo Rubber and Sumitomo Electric to join Sumitomo Riko, LanzaTech project
08 August 2023
In November 2022, LanzaTech and Sumitomo Riko Company entered into a joint-development agreement to reuse rubber, resin and urethane waste for the production of a key chemical intermediate, isoprene. (Earlier post.) Sumitomo Rubber along with Sumitomo Electric will be taking part in this joint development.
The three companies will join forces with LanzaTech in joint development, aiming to pioneer groundbreaking technologies that enable a circular economy, transforming waste materials, including rubber, resin, urethane, and metal, into valuable resources. This will accelerate Sumitomo efforts to create a sustainable society characterized by carbon neutrality and a circular economy—the goals of its circular economy concept, “TOWANOWA.”
The partners aim to leverage LanzaTech’s biorecycling technology to turn waste materials such as tires into isoprene, which can be used as new rubber materials. This will be achieved by gasifying the waste materials and purifying the resulting gas, and then putting them through a fermentation process that transforms the gas into new raw materials.
The end goal, working alongside raw material manufacturers, is to explore the feasibility of establishing a recycling technology that enables the reuse of isoprene as materials for rubber and resin. The partners are also contemplating the idea of recycling the metals recovered during the gasifying process and reusing them as raw materials.
Comments