Major Japanese chemical firm Asahi Kasei Corp. will buy butadiene derived from plastic waste and biomass from a Singaporean arm of oil giant Royal Dutch Shell Plc to make sustainable synthetic rubber for eco-friendly tires.

Asahi Kasei said Wednesday that it concluded an agreement with Shell Eastern Petroleum (Pte) Ltd. on Tuesday to purchase the butadiene to manufacture and market sustainable solution-polymerized styrene-butadiene rubber, or S-SBR for short, in the city-state.

The Tokyo-based chemical firm said it will start producing S-SBR, used mainly for high-performance and fuel-efficient tires, by March next year, aiming for an annual output of several hundred tons for the time being.

S-SBR is the world's first synthetic rubber made from butadiene deriving from plastic waste, and Asahi Kasei said it is the first Japanese firm to make S-SBR originating from biomass.

Asahi Kasei did not release a contract figure or the amount of butadiene it plans to procure from Shell. It will use its existing facilities at Asahi Kasei Synthetic Rubber Singapore Pte. Ltd. to produce the S-SBR but has no plan to make a fresh investment, an Asahi Kasei official said. (NNA/Kyodo)

==Kyodo

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