Alexandria University

Faculty of engineering
Gas and petrochemical engineering program
Petrochemical industries I
GPE 422

Synthetic Rubber

Name:
Mazen fathy
Moustafa Emad
ID:
5079
5070

Contents
What is Synthetic Rubber?............................................................................3

1
 What are the Chemical Types in Synthetic Rubber?................................3
Types of Synthetic Rubber............................................................................3
What Led to the Development of Synthetic Rubber?................................4
How is Synthetic Rubber Produced?...........................................................4
References..........................................................................................................5

2
What is Synthetic Rubber?
Rubber in its native form is basically useless. It is only when certain chemicals
are added, the rubber thus produced is used to make varied rubber products.
Synthetic rubber is used as a substitute for natural rubber in many cases.
Depending on the chemicals added and the properties associated with it, the
synthetic rubber can be as hard as a bowling ball or as resilient as a rubber band
or as soft as a sponge.
When improved material properties are required, synthetic rubber is
considered. Approximately 70% of all rubber used today are one from many
synthetic rubber varieties.

3
What are the Chemical Types in Synthetic
Rubber?
Synthetic rubber is artificially made from petrochemical feedstocks.
Crude oil is the principal raw material for different types of rubber in
synthetic category.
As opposed to natural rubber where there is only one chemical type,
there are approximately 20 different chemical types of synthetic rubber,
and within all of the types of rubber, there are different grades. The
different types of rubber, especially the synthetic rubber types have their
own individual properties and advantages.

The industry chooses the rubber types which most clearly meet the
demands of an intended use.

Types of Synthetic Rubber

As is clear from the above discussion, there are about twenty different
types of chemicals used for making different synthetic rubber varities. It
is obvious that there are different synthetic rubber kinds. Some of the
popular synthetic rubber types include the following.

4
 Acrylic Rubber (ACM)
 Butadiene Rubber (BR)
 Butyl Rubber (IIR)
 Chlorosulfonated Polyethylene (CSM)/ Hypalon
 Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer (EPDM)
 Fluoroelastomers (FKM)/ Viton
 Isoprene Rubber (IR)
 Nitrile Rubber (NBR)
 Perfluoroelastomer (FFKM)
 Polychloroprene (CR)/ Neoprene
 Polysulfide Rubber (PSR)
 Silicone Rubber (SiR)
 Styrene Butadiene Rubber (SBR)

What Led to the Development of Synthetic

Rubber?
During the World War II, the United States was cut off from almost all of
its sources of natural rubber in the Pacific. In order to meet the country's
needs for this important material, the government built synthetic rubber
plants and the manufacturing industries operated them.

Synthetic rubber production increased from 8,000 tons in 1941 to

820,000 tons in 1945. After the World War II, the government sold these
synthetic rubber plants to the industries. After that there is no looking
back. There are different types of synthetic rubber having different
properties and manufacturers and suppliers are producing different range
of rubber products which are used for commercial and industrial purpose.

According to a research report, the global demand for industrial rubber

products is estimated to rise to 4.3% annually through 2013 to $97.8
billion

5
How is Synthetic Rubber Produced?
Petrochemical feedstocks are the main raw material for producing
synthetic rubber types. Crude oil is the principal raw material. Two
types of gases too contribute in the producton of general types of
rubbers in the category of synthetic rubber.
These are butadien used for making Butadiene Rubber and styrene
used for making Styrene Butadiene Rubber. Butadiene is a by-
product of petroleum refining and styrene is captured either in the
coking process or as a petroleum refining by-product.

References
1) http://www.industrialrubbergoods.com/acrylic-rubber.html