The green road of a century-old rubber

You drive home from golf on a fine Sunday with this magazine on your desk, and you open it and read, "Today's 'World on Wheels' is attributed to a man named Fritz The people of Fritz Hofmann, who succeeded in synthesizing natural rubber products a hundred years ago. "Not just the wheels, the golf balls you just used, the sneakers you haven't had time to change, you All kinds of accessories that are indispensable for the normal operation of your car, the drilling and electric drilling equipment used by your company day and night... Everything that constitutes the world we are familiar with today may use synthetic rubber.

If the father of synthetic rubber is Fritz Hoffmann, then the company that Hoffmann worked for at that time is the mother of synthetic rubber. At the beginning of 2005, the chemical and plastics business of the Bayer Group underwent a strategic reorganization and spin-off, resulting in the birth of a chemical company with both ancient history and youthful vitality, LANXESS—LANXESS. The company's most important product comes from "synthesis", and the name of this enterprising enterprise is also a "synthesis word". LAN comes from the French verb lancer, which means to develop forward, and XESS comes from the English noun success, which means success.

Axel Claus Heitmann, Chairman of the Board of Directors of LANXESS, is a tall, tall German with a dashing gait, piercing eyes and clear and powerful speech. When the author asked, people a hundred years ago could not imagine today's "world on wheels", then, will it become an unimaginable "world without wheels" a hundred years from now? He Deman has a keen insight. The author's implicit intention, "Are you worried that synthetic rubber will one day be out of use and wheels will no longer be needed? First of all, wheels are just one of many applications for rubber. More importantly, the trend of people's desire to move will not This trend runs through the process of human civilization.” The author also asked that Lanxess’s business around the world is based on sustainable development, which is a kind of green environmental protection appeal to various countries. Respond? He Deman said, "We didn't do it because the government encouraged us to do it. Protecting the environment is what it should be."

A strategy to reduce consumption

LANXESS is part of the "Rubber Kingdom" Leader, not only because of its origins in the history of synthetic rubber. This is a company that actively undertakes social responsibilities, leading the innovation and optimization of rubber processes. While trying to develop new technologies and new products to expand the market and improve profitability, LANXESS always keeps in mind that it will protect the environment, reduce pollution and sustainable development. Development is incorporated into organizational tasks.

Whenever it is necessary to invest in new factories and R&D centers in various countries, LANXESS will assign environmental protection tasks to each branch at the same time to ensure the implementation of global uniform environmental protection standards and the uniform use of the latest production standards. When allocating R&D tasks to various regional branches, LANXESS will focus on using local resources, and when laying out production bases, LANXESS will focus on local raw materials and market conditions. The corresponding results will be shared within the group, as will the experience in green environmental protection. For example, LANXESS's factory in Germany has done a lot of research and development work on the process, and the new technologies obtained were soon applied to the factories in Wuxi and Jinshan.

LANXESS believes that placing each branch research department in a place where local environmental resources can be utilized can optimize resource allocation and reduce unnecessary consumption. LANXESS hopes to guide the technology of each branch research institute in a globally available direction through the coordination of the headquarters research center, and strive to make the research results universal.

For example, Singapore has become a base for LANXESS to export butyl rubber to Asia-Pacific countries due to its special policy and geographical location. To meet the growing demand for rubber in India, LANXESS has built a new plant north of its Mumbai production site. Considering the huge demand potential in China for rubber production and innovation – it is estimated that basically a 1% GDP growth leads to a 2% automotive growth – LANXESS has established a research center in Qingdao, not only for the Chinese market, but also for the entire Asia Pacific market. This principle is not just to be close to the market or the origin of raw materials, but to carefully consider and optimize the relationship between the supply of raw materials and production and sales, and reduce unnecessary waste of material or human flow.

The BRIC countries have given LANXESS huge returns, and the combined turnover and profits of these four countries now account for one-third of the company's total. The above-mentioned strategic direction and management methods, supplemented by financial support, ensure that the success of LANXESS can be replicated everywhere, so as to continuously introduce new processes and new products in line with the concept of green chemistry.

All-round environmental protection measures

Instead of spending a lot of money to deal with the waste gas and wastewater pollution caused by production, LANXESS believes that it is more meaningful to scientifically improve the process flow, reduce the consumption of raw materials, and recycle the raw materials. big. Reducing the rate of waste generated in the production process has always been a goal of process innovation at LANXESS. This really kills two birds with one stone, which not only improves environmental benefits, but also reduces production costs, because more waste generation means lower utilization of raw materials.

As far as the rubber product line is concerned, LANXESS has inherited a century of experience and has a deep understanding of every process detail in rubber production. The company also continuously invests in research and development, ponders every detail repeatedly, and seeks to reasonably improve the use efficiency of raw materials from the very beginning, and reduce waste and pollution caused by waste.

LANXESS implements the same environmental standards worldwide. Although China's standards in this regard are lower than those in the European Union and the United States, the company's factories in China have not lowered the requirements at all. Taking the factory in Wuxi as an example, LANXESS has gradually reduced waste water pollution and water waste by investing in a waste water recycling system. The utilization rate of purified water has increased from 23.4 tons per ton of product in 1998 to 2008 The product only needs 4.3 tons of purified water, and the waste water discharge reaches the ISO14001 standard. At the same time, the product quality of LANXESS Chemicals (Wuxi) is maintained above the ISO9001 standard.

On the one hand, energy saving, emission reduction and efficiency increase in the production process through technological innovation is one aspect. LANXESS also spends a lot of effort on research and development to improve the energy efficiency of products in use. Some of these innovations are based on breakthroughs in core technologies, and some are combined with customers to study the different needs of customers and make continuous improvements to existing products. On the basis of maintaining quality, LANXESS spares no effort to save energy and protect the environment.

LANXESS' synthetic rubber for the latest high-performance tires has been able to reduce fuel consumption by 30 percent, and they are also working toward a 50 percent reduction in fuel consumption. In addition, they are developing a new plastic material for auto parts. Using these plastics instead of metal can not only reduce the weight of the car, but also make the performance of the car more stable, which is both energy efficient and practical.

In China, LANXESS also sees potential demand for green rubber. Because the green technology of rubber is not yet popular in China, LANXESS produces green rubber in China by means of investment and cooperation to meet China's local demand for green rubber without competing with PetroChina and Sinopec. LANXESS has invested in a compound plant in Wuxi, and is building a butyl rubber base in a joint venture with a Taiwanese company in Nantong. LANXESS already has a joint compound plant in Liyang.

Sustainability has become the corporate culture of LANXESS. On May 29, 2007, a drinking water crisis broke out in Wuxi. In addition to purchasing drinking water from the market to help employees in emergency situations, the management of LANXESS also prepared 300 sets of drinking water purifiers for employees and long-term contractors of LANXESS to seek employees' drinking water. Long-term solution to water problems. The complete drinking water plant was developed by LANXESS for the purification of underground water containing arsenic.

Many chemical products are difficult to degrade, yet many of them can be recycled. LANXESS is promoting the recycling of the entire rubber and even the entire chemical product, and has begun to discuss how to increase the space for recycling and recycling of other plastic products. LANXESS customers are already recycling used tires.

LANXESS's active R&D teams in various places not only possess professional knowledge and application ability, but also recognize green culture in concept. These personnel are constantly trying to find new market demands and new optimization solutions through R&D teams distributed in various places, striving to strike a balance between growth and development and environmental protection. Therefore, enterprises can be more active and active in undertaking environmental protection, and the pace of sustainable development is more determined.