Technology Laboratory

In the field of catalyst development, we have been most interested in the technological development of the Ziegler-Natta (ZN) and metallocene catalysts. When the ZN catalysts were discovered in the early 1950s, we quickly concluded a licensing agreement to conduct research and make innovative improvements. As a result, our olefin polymerization catalysts have excellent morphology and high activity, and are widely used inside and outside Japan.

We are proud that our ZN catalytic technological innovations are used in a variety of manufacturing processes and meet the wide ranging needs of our customers, and that our metallocene catalysts are used in environmentally friendly polyethylene manufacturing processes that do not use solvents.

In the field of process development, we have successfully developed various polyolefin manufacturing processes, for example, innovative polypropylene manufacturing processes, new polyethylene manufacturing processes, and the world's first elastomer manufacturing process, using Mitsui's metallocene catalysts. For the HYPOL process used in the manufacture of polypropylene, we have granted more than 50 licenses worldwide, making our process technology highly regarded.

With the aim of speeding up the development of new products, we are working hard to support production plants in the　implementation of mass production technologies, and in taking small experiments from the laboratory scale to a scale of several hundred liters, and the acquisition and use of continuous and batch operation data. We also have a multi-purpose semi-commercial plant allowing us to develop various markets in a shorter period of time.