Sumitomo Chemical has decided to newly establish a Research and Development (R&D) Group, named “Technological Development Group of Environmental Initiatives” in the Petrochemicals Research Laboratory (Sodegaura City, Chiba) as of April 1, 2020, with the goal of contributing to the creation of a sustainable society.
The new R&D group’s mission is to develop a process to reduce environmental impact by making the best use of core technologies, including catalyst design and chemical processing design, which the company has cultivated in the Petrochemical & Plastic business. By concentrating research projects currently dispersed across several research laboratories into the Petrochemicals Research Laboratory and by beefing up the number of researchers to about 30, Sumitomo Chemical will accelerate its development exponentially while also focusing on new projects. In addition, the new R&D group will actively collaborate with academia and companies that have advanced technologies, and promote activities to make environmental impact reduction technology into a new business in the Petrochemicals & Plastics Sector.
Sumitomo Chemical has identified environmental impact mitigation as one of the material issues to be addressed by its management. The company will continue to create solutions for social issues, such as carbon cycling technology and greenhouse gas emission reduction technology.
Examples of development projects at the new R&D group
- Polyolefin manufacturing technology using waste-derived ethanol as a raw material
- Chemical recycling technology for waste plastics
- Chemicals manufacturing technology using CO2
- Innovative energy-saving technology for chemical manufacturing processes
- Development of energy-saving wastewater processing systems
