{"id":26874,"date":"2015-07-03T02:25:50","date_gmt":"2015-07-03T00:25:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=26874"},"modified":"2015-07-02T11:11:36","modified_gmt":"2015-07-02T09:11:36","slug":"greener-than-green","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/greener-than-green\/","title":{"rendered":"Greener than green – Alternative plasticizer oils and fillers:"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cologne – Specialty chemicals company LANXESS has looked into how the CO2<\/sub> footprint can be further reduced during the processing of \u201cgreen\u201d rubber. Anyone wishing to develop \u201cgreen\u201d rubber articles can already turn to the Keltan Eco EPDM rubber from LANXESS as an outstanding alternative to conventional synthetic rubber from fossil raw materials. LANXESS experts have now examined which plasticizer oils and fillers can be combined with this bio-based rubber to reduce the carbon footprint of the resulting compounds still further. The extensive study, which examined amongst others the use of natural oils and carbon black from tire waste, will be presented to a wide audience of experts at the German Rubber Conference 2015 in Nuremberg.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The LANXESS researchers have come to very concrete conclusions. For example, they will be presenting on a seal for use in automobiles that is based on sulfur-vulcanized EPDM. The seal consists of 90 percent sustainable components and exhibits broadly the same technical properties as its conventional equivalents. \u201cIn many cases, EPDM products contain up to four times as much ingredients \u2013 such as fillers and oils \u2013 next to the rubber,\u201d explains Martin van Duin, rubber expert at LANXESS High Performance Elastomers business unit. \u201cOur Keltan Eco grades made from ethylene, which is produced using bio-based raw materials, are therefore one key building block in the development of \u2018greener\u2019 rubber articles \u2013 but only one of many. Since improving the sustainability of our products is one of our most important goals at LANXESS, we have now also taken an intensive look at the possibilities and technical conditions involved in \u2018green\u2019 compounds using Keltan Eco.\u201d<\/p>\n

Theoretically, there is a whole range of possible components made from sustainable raw materials available to the rubber compound developers that could replace, for example, extender oils from fossil sources in EPDM rubber products. The challenge is in the detail. If the natural oils are too polar, the mixture can cause problems during mixing or bleeding from the final product. If they contain too much unsaturation, they can affect the network density, because they compete with the rubber for the sulfur during vulcanization. Van Duin and his colleague Philip Hough, expert in application development, therefore examined a whole series of oils with varying levels of unsaturation \u2013 from linseed oil to olive oil. In a second phase of their study, they also included modified oils such as hydrogenated coconut oil, and squalane, a naturally occurring saturated C30 hydrocarbon. In terms of potential \u201cgreen\u201d fillers, candidates included micro-crystalline cellulose (from wood), silica ash (from rice husks) and pyrolysis carbon black (from waste tires). \u201cEven this black is better than conventional furnace black obtained through the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels in terms of its sustainability,\u201d explains Hough, \u201cbecause it avoids waste and increases the recycling rate. On top of that, the tire waste itself contains a certain proportion of natural rubber.\u201d<\/p>\n

Using standard procedures and equipment, all these components were processed at LANXESS into rubber samples that were then thoroughly examined in terms of their technical properties, including after artificial aging. \u201cWe made a conscious decision to prioritize practicality, so we could transfer experience to industrial rubber application technology as easily as possible and offer valid compounding recommendations,\u201d says van Duin.<\/p>\n

Some effects were expected, and have now been comprehensively documented. \u201cWe have shown what can already be achieved using these findings by creating a Keltan Eco seal that is made up of 90 percent sustainable raw materials and is totally comparable with conventional compounds,\u201d says Hough, \u201ceven after aging at 125 \u00b0C.\u201d This shows that EPDM\u2019s key characteristic \u2013 its outstanding heat stability \u2013 is also present in \u201cgreen\u201d compounds.<\/p>\n

LANXESS is a leading specialty chemicals company with sales of EUR 8.0 billion in 2014 and about 16,300 employees in 29 countries. The company is currently represented at 52 production sites worldwide. The core business of LANXESS is the development, manufacturing and marketing of plastics, rubber, intermediates and specialty chemicals. LANXESS is a member of the leading sustainability indices Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI World and DJSI Europe) and FTSE4Good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cologne – Specialty chemicals company LANXESS has looked into how the CO2 footprint can be further reduced during the processing of \u201cgreen\u201d rubber. Anyone wishing to develop \u201cgreen\u201d rubber articles can already turn to the Keltan Eco EPDM rubber from LANXESS as an outstanding alternative to conventional synthetic rubber from fossil raw materials. LANXESS experts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[],"supplier":[722],"class_list":["post-26874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","supplier-lanxess-ag"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26874\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26874"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=26874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}