Synthos and Lummus plan biobutadiene plant

The Polish chemical maker Synthos will begin engineering and design work on a plant that will make biobased butadiene from ethanol. It has been working on the technology with Lummus Technology’s Green Circle unit since last year. The plant will have 40,000 metric tons per year of capacity, double the capacity for the synthetic rubber raw material that the firms originally envisioned. Synthos purchased Trinseo’s synthetic rubber business in December. Trinseo has been collaborating on biobased butadiene with the Russian technology firm ETB Catalytic Technologies.