Zeon Corporation and Yokohama Rubber announced plans to build a facility for sustainable rubber production. The facility will demonstrate technology that converts ethanol sourced from plant based and other renewable materials into butadiene. Zeon says it will develop prototype polybutadiene rubber (synthetic rubber) from the butadiene. Yokohama Rubber will then create prototype tires and conduct road tests to assess their performance.

Zeon will locate the plant at its Tokuyama Plant in Shunan City, Japan. The partners expect operations to begin in 2026 and will use the facility to collect data that supports future mass production.

In 2022, the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) selected this initiative as part of its sustainable plastics program. The project develops technology to produce raw plastic materials using CO₂ and other renewable sources.

Zeon and Yokohama Rubber collaborate with several top institutions, including the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), the National University Corporation Institute of Science Tokyo, and RIKEN.

The group aims to efficiently produce butadiene and isoprene from sustainable materials by the 2030s.

At the Tokuyama Plant, Zeon will install a bench-scale system that converts ethanol into butadiene using a proprietary catalyst.

The companies will gather technical data needed to scale operations. The data form butadiene production and tire testing will help validate the process and support large scale implementation.