Chinese researchers have completed trials of a new rare earth-based synthetic rubber production facility, industrialising a major raw material for manufacturing electric vehicle and heavy-duty vehicle tyres.
High-quality synthetic rubber, most of which uses metal as a catalyst during production, is vital to the transport industry, manufacturing and national defence.
The unit, built by Xinjiang-based PetroChina subsidiary Dushanzi Petrochemical with support from the Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, will have a production capacity of 100,000 tonnes a year.
Starting production on July 16, the plant draws on more than 60 years of research into rare earth catalytic synthesis of butadiene rubber, which the institute said it helped to pioneer in the 1960s.
Synthetic rubber is produced mostly from petroleum by-products like styrene and butadiene rather than derived from natural rubber trees.
Butadiene rubber is a type of synthetic rubber that is highly resilient and wear-resistant, and is used to produce tyres and other high-quality rubber-based products. Cis-butadiene rubber refers to a high-grade form engineered to have better durability and elasticity.
Butadiene rubber is typically produced using a metal-based catalyst, mainly nickel, titanium, cobalt, or rare earth metals. One of the main catalytic systems uses neodymium, a rare earth metal produced mainly by China.
Compared with the conventional nickel-catalysed rubber, rare earth-catalysed rubber offers higher strength, greater tear resistance, reduced internal heat generation and better resistance to low temperatures.
This makes the rubber suitable for the production of electric vehicles as well as for heavy-duty vehicles, according to the institute.
Synthetic rubber is an “important national strategic resource” to China, according to a 2020 paper by researchers from the Sinopec Beijing Research Institute of Chemical Industry.
The Sinopec team said the material was widely used in daily life, industry, transport and national defence, according to the paper published in the Chinese journal Strategic Study of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
Researchers from the Changchun institute, which is under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, have been researching synthetic rubber for decades, following natural rubber shortages in the 1950s along with Western technological blockades, according to the state news agency Xinhua.
The institute said it helped produce China’s first composite solid propellant using polysulphide rubber, which was used to support the “two bombs, one satellite” programme.
This was a strategic weapons project initiated in the 1950s to help China produce independent nuclear, missile and satellite powers, which led to the detonation of the country’s first atomic and hydrogen bombs, as well as the launch of the Dongfanghong-1 satellite.
In the 1960s, researchers from the institute published the world’s first public research on synthesising cis-butadiene rubber with rare earth catalysts, making China a pioneer in the field, according to the institute.
A team led by institute researcher Bi Jifu has been working on key technologies to precisely control the catalysts and automate the production of butadiene rubber.
The institute, which has been working with Dushanzi Petrochemical since 2006 to bring the technology from laboratory to industrial production, said the successful trial would help to meet China’s demand for the material and ensure supply chain security. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
