MOL Group- Upsurges Butadiene Production

Butadiene is a highly reactive volatile organic compound and is used as an industrial chemical in the form of a monomer. It is also referred to as 1,3-Butadiene. Butadiene is one of the basic chemicals of the chemical industry, utilized as an important ingredient or raw material for a wide range of products, like synthetic rubber. Butadiene is also used extensively for various polymerizations for plastics manufacturing. Butadiene is also used as a monomer for the production of styrene-butadiene (S/B) latex, which is used as an adhesive and binder to produce carpet, paper coatings, and interior paints.

MOL Group is a Hungary based company and recognized as one of the leading companies in Central and Eastern Europe in oil & gas industry.  Oil and gas exploration and production, natural gas, oil and LNG trading and transportation, oil refining and chemicals are the prime business segments of the company. MOL has a butadiene manufacturing plant with annual production capacity of 130 thousand tonnes. Moreover, the company is planning to install a synthetic rubber unit nearby to the butadiene plant in assistance with Japan’s Synthetic Rubber Corp. In order to meet the regular demand of raw material for the upcoming synthetic rubber plant, MOL has increased the production of butadiene.

TechSci Research depicts that the installation cost of a synthetic rubber plant is much higher than the butadiene plant. However, the backward integration (butadiene plant) will help MOL Group to optimize the overall cost of synthetic rubber production.

According to “Global Butadiene Market Forecast & Opportunities, 2020” recently published market research report by TechSci Research, leading companies of the butadiene market are increasing their market footprint through both organic and inorganic growth. In the past, Germany based Evonik Industries also announced plans to increase the butadiene production capacity by 100 thousand metric tonnes.