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CompAny news

Sumitomo Chemical's catalyst Armacell recycles 1 billion

manufacturing lines in Chiba plastic bottles

umitomo Chemical Corp. has completed construction rmacell, a Luxembourg-based company that
Sof two catalyst manufacturing lines in its Chiba Works Aspecializes in flexible foam for the equipment
location (Ichihara, Chiba, Japan) to meet the demand of insulation market, has celebrated the landmark
companies licensing its polypropylene (PP) and propylene of 1 billion recycled polyethylene terephthalate
oxide (PO) manufacturing technology, in order to (PET) bottles consumption in its foaming process to
enhance its licensing business. The company’s production manufacture PET foam products. According to Armacell,
technology is based on a PO-only process, in which the company hosted a celebration event with 80 guests
from the recycling and composites industry at the
Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. The event
included speeches by Armacell President and CEO
Patrick Mathieu on the company’s sustainability story as
well as Marius Smit, CEO and founder of Plastic Whale,
on creating value from plastic waste. “Converting
plastic bottles into structural foam products used in
applications such as wind turbines, high-speed trains,
walkways and surfboards represents a significant
step toward closing the loop in plastic production,”
Armacell states in a news release on the milestone. In
PO alone is manufactured without any accompanying 2010, Armacell launched the world’s first foam cores
coproducts by recycling cumene. The cumene method, made from 100 percent recycled PET (rPET). Today,
which Sumitomo Chemical was the first in the world to the company’s entire PET foam product portfolio is
commercialize, has the distinct advantage of achieving based on this process technology, the company states
a high PO yield, when combined with the use of the in a news release. Armacell’s rPET technology uses
company’s proprietary high-performance epoxidation recycled PET bottles that are rejected for reuse by
catalyst, while ensuring superior stability in plant the PET recycling industry, and Armacell converts the
operation. It was licensed to S-OIL Corp. of South Korea
and a subsidiary of PTT Global Chemical Public Co. Ltd.
of Thailand, in addition to the company’s affiliate Petro
Rabigh. Furthermore, the company signed a technology
licensing agreement with Bharat Petroleum Corporation
Limited of India in July 2019. Sales of catalysts to
licensing partners are expected to generate stable
revenue that is unlikely to be affected by the market
environment, as demand increases as more technology
licensing agreements are signed. Sumitomo Chemical is
committed to sustaining revenue by not only obtaining
one-time technology licensing fees, but also through
the sale of catalysts and providing technical support material into high-quality resource to feed it back into
after licensing. Sumitomo Chemical intends to work with the production cycle.“There is a sustainable alternative
its global licensing partners and expand the business to single-use plastics, and Armacell is playing its part
portfolios in its Petrochemicals & Plastics Sector.The in working towards a circular model,” says Thomas
Sumitomo Chemical Group has developed a wide range Kessel, general manager at Armacell PET Foams. “In
of technologies and products that play an indispensable reusing plastic bottles, Armacell is making a difference
part in the lives of people all around the world. around the world.”

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