LANXESS & Gevo Collaborate to Develop Butyl Rubber from Renewable Biomass Feedstocks
One of the most intriguing working relationships in the search for renewable biomass feedstocks is the partnership of Gevo, a renewable chemicals company in Colorado, USA, and LANXESS, who intends to open up alternative resources for the production of butyl rubber. Together, scientists from LANXESS and Gevo are now making good progress in producing isobutene a key raw material for butyl rubber from renewable resources. Traditionally, isobutene has been produced in steam crackers, which require various petrochemical-based materials for feedstock. But the LANXESS-Gevo partnership is now pioneering a unique method that may hold the key to the sustainable production of isobutene. Researchers at LANXESS have now created a breakthrough dehydration process that converts isobutanol into isobutene. In this process, water is removed from the isobutanol. The result is biologically obtained isobutene. The dehydration process has not only proven to be successful in the laboratory, but