Evonik Industries will build a plant in Marl, Germany, for producing functionalized polybutadiene. This liquid polybutadiene (HTPB) is used primarily in sealing compounds for insulating glass windows and in adhesives for automobile manufacture. With this plant, which should go on stream in the fall of 2012, Evonik will be able to offer hydroxyl-functionalized polybutadiene for the first time to its customers in the adhesives and sealant industries.

Evonik will market HTPB as "POLYVEST HT," thus rounding off its polybutadiene product range to include one more functionalized type. "We thereby want to strengthen our position as a solution provider for sustainable products for the adhesives and sealant industries," says Dr. Thomas Haeberle, the member of Evonik’s Executive Board responsible for the segment Resource Efficiency.

Today, Evonik already is a notable manufacturer of liquid unfunctionalized polybutadienes. "Thanks to our several years worth of experience in producing polybutadiene and our proximity to customers in the adhesives and sealants markets, we think the chances are good for successfully entering the HTPB market," says Dr. Ulrich Küsthardt, head of the Coatings & Additives Business Unit.

"The demand for products that help use resources more efficiently is high," emphasized Haeberle. Double- and triple-pane glazing in window construction, for which hydroxyl-functionalized polybutadiene is used in sealing compounds, improves insulation in home construction. In adhesives for automobile manufacture, which bond various materials and composites to one another, HTPB helps make it possible to use plastics efficiently and safely in automobile construction. The reduction in the weight of vehicles, as can be achieved by using more plastic, means that less fuel is burned.

By investing in the plant, Evonik is expanding its existing service range of polyesters, polymethacrylates, amorphous poly-alpha-olefins, and liquid butadienes for the adhesive and sealant industries. The Group is therefore in a position to offer, from a single source, solutions for a variety of applications in this market.

Source: Evonik