Inside Papua New Guinea - ExxonMobil

A legacy of synthetic
rubber innovation
When the first synthetic rubber
was patented in 1909, its higher
cost relative to natural rubber
limited its use. As auto production
surged in the decades that
followed, high demand for tires
and inner tubes spurred interest
in developing a better and less
costly type of synthetic rubber.
The breakthrough came in
1937, when ExxonMobil scientists
introduced a dynamic
new rubber called butyl. This
unique material was far superior
to natural rubber because of its
improved ability to hold air, to flex
and to dampen vibration. Butyl
soon became the leading rubber
used in inner tubes and, years
later, to hold air in tubeless tires.
Today butyl rubber is practically
everywhere in our lives.
While its primary use remains
vehicle tires and tubes, butyl is
also found in inflatable sports
balls, medicine-container stoppers
and seals, hoses, gaskets,
conveyor belts, mounts for auto
engines and transmissions, tank
linings, roofing materials, contact
cement, sealing tapes, flooring
adhesives and more.
“Global demand for butyl
rubber has been, and continues
to be, quite strong,” says
Mike Gallagher, ExxonMobil
Chemical’s butyl global marketing
and sales manager. “We expect
demand growth to average
about 6 percent annually worldwide
between now and 2020,
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Story by Thomas L. Torget
Nearly three-quarters of a century after inventing butyl rubber,
ExxonMobil Chemical is a world leader in synthetic rubber
technology, products and customer support.
with even higher growth in the
Asia-Pacific region. That growing
demand makes this an excellent
business to be in – a business
ExxonMobil Chemical has led.”
The quest for
synthetic rubber
As long ago as the mid-1800s,
chemists began experimenting
with ways to create a material
that could substitute for natural
rubber. During the early 1930s,
the German company I.G. Farben
shared with ExxonMobil its work
on synthetic rubber technology.
This led to development of butyl
in 1937 by ExxonMobil scientists
William Sparks and Robert
Thomas. The two researchers’
innovation was a huge breakthrough
because – unlike other
synthetic rubbers – butyl could
be vulcanized, that is, cured with
heat and sulfur to impart elasticity
and other useful properties.
The discovery set in motion
ExxonMobil’s subsequent development
of a full range of synthetic
rubbers and other elastomers.
The world’s first facility to
produce commercial quantities
of butyl was ExxonMobil’s Baton
Rouge butyl plant, which began
operating in 1943. Production
increased two years later when
the company opened a second
butyl plant in Baytown, Texas.
By the 1950s, ExxonMobil
researchers had developed
technology for an all-butyl tire
that provided improved traction,
cornering and energy-absorbing
properties. The all-butyl tire
provided a smooth ride but,
unfortunately, the tire wear was
poor: pieces of the tire were left
on the road. This era also saw
development of an improved
butyl known as halobutyl, which
allowed covulcanizing with natural
rubber and styrene-butadiene
rubber. This led to ExxonMobil
Chemical’s introduction of two
The qualities of
halobutyl rubber
help to retain air in
tubeless radial tires.
new products, chlorobutyl and,
later, bromobutyl. These ongoing
enhancements in butyl quality not
only continued to improve the
performance of tires and inner
tubes, but also found application
in a wide range of other industrial
and consumer products.
Today’s product lineup
ExxonMobil Chemical’s butyl
portfolio now includes three
major products – Exxon butyl