Sumitomo Chemical, Maruzen Petrochemical and Mitsui Chemicals have agreed to study the feasibility of collaborative projects to achieve carbon neutrality at the Keiyo Coastal Industrial Complex in Chiba. This is part of climate change targets all three have developed individually.

The initiative will mainly comprise measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as diversifying feedstocks, using biomass, new chemical recycling and material recycling technologies, converting to new kinds of fuels and the renewal of associated infrastructure.

Sumitomo Chemical is to start a full-scale study on reorganising three of its research laboratories in Japan. The company described this as “part of its efforts to accelerate the creation of next-generation businesses”.

The plan includes building a new facility at Osaka as a base for incubation and open innovation by Q3 2024. This has research capabilities in safety assessment, industrial technologies and business sector-led projects in ICT and life sciences.

Japan’s AGC has announced that it has developed an integrated operation and quality management system for chemical plants called ‘Chopin’. This follows test runs at a fluorinated resin ring plant at the Chiba site in 2019, which reduced working time by more than 11 hours/day and generated savings of Y100 million through more stable operation.