Since 2025, the butyl rubber industry has entered a critical transition period of raw material system innovation and circular economy development under the background of deepening the "dual carbon" target. Data shows that in the global butyl rubber market in 2024, the proportion of green and low-carbon related products has increased to 22%. Among them, the production capacity of bio based butyl rubber has increased by 45% year-on-year, and the recycling rate of waste butyl rubber has exceeded 18%. As a major producer and consumer of butyl rubber, China's bio based butyl rubber production will reach 32000 tons in 2024, with a waste recycling volume of over 15000 tons. The industry is accelerating from "scale expansion" to "green quality improvement".
Breaking through traditional dependence on bio based raw materials. For a long time, the production of butyl rubber has been highly dependent on petroleum based polyisobutene, with raw material costs accounting for over 60% and high carbon emission intensity. In recent years, domestic enterprises and research institutions have made significant progress in the field of bio based raw materials through joint research and development. Shandong Dongfang Hongye, in collaboration with the Qingdao Institute of Energy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, uses agricultural and forestry waste such as corn cob and straw as raw materials to prepare bio based isoprene through microbial fermentation technology, which is then polymerized to produce butyl rubber. The bio based content of the product reaches 38%, and its performance indicators are basically the same as petroleum based products. Currently, a 5000 ton/year pilot production line has been built, reducing carbon emissions per ton of product by 42% compared to traditional processes. A biomaterial company in Zhejiang has developed castor oil-based polyisobutene, which has improved the aging resistance of bio based butyl rubber by 25% through molecular structure optimization. It has been applied in small batches in the field of photovoltaic module sealing. According to industry estimates, if the proportion of bio based raw materials in butyl rubber production increases to 30%, it can reduce oil consumption by over 800000 tons per year and carbon emissions by about 2 million tons.
The recycling system for waste butyl rubber is gradually improving. With the widespread application of butyl rubber in fields such as construction, automotive, and photovoltaics, the demand for recycling and processing of waste products is becoming increasingly prominent. In 2024, China's first large-scale waste butyl rubber recycling project will be put into operation in Changzhou, Jiangsu. The project is jointly developed by Changzhou Jishuo Environmental Protection and Nanjing University of Technology. It adopts the "low-temperature cracking distillation purification" technology, which can recover core raw materials such as polyisobutene from waste hollow glass butyl rubber and automotive inner tube butyl rubber, with a recovery rate of over 85% and a purity of over 99%. It can be directly used for the production of recycled butyl rubber. The first phase of the project has a designed production capacity of 10000 tons per year, and is expected to process 12000 tons of waste butyl rubber annually, reducing the amount of solid waste landfill by over 8000 tons. In addition, pilot projects for recycling waste butyl rubber are also being promoted in Dongying, Shandong and Zhaoqing, Guangdong. The Dongying project innovatively adopts the "physical sorting+chemical modification" process to mix recycled and new materials in a 3:7 ratio for the butyl rubber after dismantling photovoltaic modules. The product can meet the sealing needs of ordinary building insulating glass.
Policy linkage safeguards green development. At the national level, the "14th Five Year Plan" for the development of circular economy clearly includes "recycling and utilization of waste rubber" as a key task, and proposes to achieve a rubber product recycling and utilization rate of over 60% by 2025; At the local level, special subsidy policies have been introduced in Zhejiang, Jiangsu and other regions, providing subsidies of 2000 to 3000 yuan per ton for bio based butyl rubber production enterprises, and operating subsidies of 500 yuan per ton for waste butyl rubber recycling projects based on processing capacity. In terms of standard system construction, the China Building Glass and Industrial Glass Association is developing the "Technical Requirements for Butyl Adhesive of Biobased Hollow Glass", which clarifies key content such as biobased content detection methods and environmental indicators. It is expected to be officially released in 2026. Driven by policies, China's investment in green butyl rubber will exceed 1.5 billion yuan in 2024, an increase of 38% compared to 2023, with investment in bio based raw materials and recycling technology accounting for over 70%.
Expanding application scenarios to promote the landing of green products. In the field of architecture, key projects such as Beijing Urban Sub Center and Xiong'an New Area have begun to trial bio based butyl rubber. Among them, the bio based butyl rubber used in a certain office building project in Xiong'an has been tested to have a low water vapor transmission rate of 0.16g/m ² · d and a sealing life of over 30 years, meeting the requirements of the three-star green building standard; In the automotive industry, car companies such as BYD and NIO have begun to use recycled butyl rubber in the sealing of new energy vehicle windows. In a certain model, the proportion of recycled materials in the rear door glass sealant reached 25%, reducing the cost of using single vehicle butyl rubber by 12%. In the field of photovoltaics, we are exploring the "green production+recycling closed-loop" model. Longi Green Energy's photovoltaic module factory in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, uses bio based butyl rubber for packaging and cooperates with local recycling companies to achieve 100% recycling of butyl rubber after module retirement by 2027.
Industry experts point out that the green transformation of the butyl rubber industry has entered a virtuous cycle of "technological breakthroughs policy support market application". It is expected that by 2028, China's bio based butyl rubber production capacity will exceed 100000 tons, accounting for 8% of the total butyl rubber production capacity; The recycling rate of waste butyl rubber will be increased to 30%, reducing solid waste pollution by over 50000 tons annually. The future development of the industry will focus on three major directions: optimizing the performance of bio based raw materials, aiming to increase the bio based content to over 50% while reducing production costs; Large scale application of recycling technology, promoting recycling projects from pilot to regional layout; Cross industry collaboration to establish a green alliance for the entire industry chain of "butyl rubber production application recycling". Driven by multiple forces, the butyl rubber industry is gradually transitioning from petroleum dependence to biological substitution, from linear consumption to circular utilization, providing a demonstration path for the green development of the polymer materials industry.
