JX Nippon to boost capacity for rubber-extender oil

JX Nippon Oil and Energy plans to establish an additional 35,000-tons per year facility in 2013 for the production of environmentally friendly rubber-extender oil, primarily for sale to synthetic-rubber and tire manufacturers in Japan.
The company produces and sells three types of environmentally friendly rubber-extender oils with low contents of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons such as benzo(a)pyrene: treated distillate aromatic extract, or TDAE, an oil based on a processed aromatic extract from a vacuum distillate; NC-RAE, a special aromatic extract from vacuum-distillation residual oil; and a naphthene-based process oil.
TDAE is the most widely used in the world, NC-RAE is widely used in Japan, and the naphthene-based oil is used in certain specific applications. JX Nippon is the only lube oil manufacturer with all three in its product line-up.
To increase its production for the domestic market, the company decided to start building a new plant for NC-RAE in the A Factory of its Mizushima refinery in Okayama Prefecture this December, adding to its NC-RAE production in the Mizushima refinery’s B Factory and in its Negishi refinery.
Group company Wakayama Petroleum Refining handles TDAE production and Sankyo Yuka Kogyo handles the production of naphthene-based oil.
With the production of solution-polymerized styrene-butadiene rubber growing abroad, JX Nippon will also consider overseas production in the medium to long term, most likely in alliance with a partner that has petroleum-refining capacity.