Zeon Corp. (Tokyo, Japan) has completed construction of a bench-scale facility at its Tokuyama Plant (Shunan City, Yamaguchi Prefecture) to demonstrate technology for highly efficient production of butadiene from ethanol derived from plant-based and other sustainable materials. The facility is scheduled to begin full-scale operation in January 2027 toward achieving commercialization by 2034. This project is one of two R&D themes being undertaken by Zeon and The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. (Hiratsuka, Japan) and supported by NEDO’s Green Innovation Fund Projects. Zeon will develop a prototype polybutadiene rubber using butadiene made at the bench-scale facility. Yokohama Rubber will then develop prototype tires using the butadiene rubber and conduct driving tests to collect data for a large-scale demonstration.