Elastomers for Sustainability, or E4S, is described by the ERJ as “an industry-first sustainability initiative, designed to highlight significant advances for end-user sectors including tires, automotive components, construction, consumer, industrial and medical.”

The panel of judges comprise an independent group of highly skilled experts from the polymer science and technology field who are well-known among rubber industry insiders, such as Professor James Busfield from Queen Mary University of London, Dr. Christoph Sokolowski from the WDK, Martyn Bennett, founder of Midsomer Science, and Jiří Brejcha from Brejcha Rubber Consulting. Each project was judged based on the quality of the presentation, level of innovation, unique selling proposition, commercial potential and its contribution to sustainability.

For this inaugural staging of the initiative, Behn Meyer Europe GmbH submitted our epoxidised natural rubber (ENR) filler technology project for the panel’s consideration. In a nutshell, the project aims to optimise filler technology to boost the performance of elastomers. By replacing traditionally fossil-based materials in tires and rubber, we can reduce abrasion at points of contact and thereby reducing the contribution of tires to microplastics pollution. Out of all the participants, we are glad to have ranked number 6 overall.

This is part of our long-term strategy to extend the use of sustainable materials without sacrificing any of the performance consumers enjoy with traditional materials. We believe that ENR has great potential when paired with the right filler system.

This ranking is a great encouragement to us and represents a significant step forward for the commercialisation of ENR technology, thanks to the team from FGV Holdings Berhad who helped us with the production of Ekoprena ENR.