Sumitomo Chemical Co. (Tokyo, Japan) has successfully established a mass production technology for liquid crystal polymer (LCP) using a monomer derived from biomass-based materials. As a global leader in the LCP market, the Company will accelerate the development of a mass production system for bio-based LCP leveraging this technology, aiming to obtain customer certification by the end of fiscal 2026 and to begin supplying the product from fiscal 2027.
LCP is a type of super engineering plastic that excels in heat resistance and fire resistance. It is used in a wide variety of applications, including materials for electric and electronic components in smartphones, automotive parts, and office automation equipment. Most of the raw materials used in such industrial applications are currently derived from fossil resources, and in recent years, there have been growing calls to switch all industrial product materials to biomass materials. Further supporting its commitment to LCP, Sumitomo Chemical acquired Synesqo’s LCP business assets in February 2025.
In the LCP manufacturing process using biomass materials that it has successfully developed, Sumitomo Chemical has adopted a segregation approach that completely separates biomass materials from other materials during production. This approach enables precise control of the biomass content and can clarify how much biomass materials are included in the product. In addition to the segregation approach, there is another approach called mass balance, in which when biomass materials and other materials are mixed to manufacture a product, the characteristics of the biomass materials is allocated to part of the output of the product based on the proportion of biomass materials used in the manufacturing process. Sumitomo Chemical plans to meet customer needs by considering the unique features of each of these approaches.