Smaller footprints

Across global industries, manufacturers are under increasing pressure to advance sustainability by embracing responsible sourcing, reducing resource consumption and minimizing greenhouse gas emissions throughout the product lifecycle.

Innovative thinking

“Achieving these ambitious goals while maintaining the uncompromising performance standards customers rely on means rethinking material choices to significantly decrease environmental impact,” says Dr. Jekaterina Miller.

She is the project manager responsible for the development of two ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) rubber material grades that provide measurable reduction in the carbon footprint in critical industrial polymers.

“Our new reduced carbon footprint EPDMs are created from raw polymers based on non-fossil sources derived from renewable ingredients such as used cooking oil, straw, forestry residue and tall oil, a liquid obtained as a by-product of the kraft process of wood pulp manufacture,” she continues. “The materials offer reduced greenhouse gas emissions compared to fossil-based alternatives because the feedstock comes from bio-circular and circular sources.”

Equivalent performance

Dr. Miller emphasizes that using this feedstock does not compromise material properties. The final formulations are comparable to traditional EPDM elastomers made from fossil-sourced inputs, ensuring equivalent performance in applications.
“The materials offer ‘no compromise’ alternatives that will also contribute to lowering the carbon footprints of our customers’ products,” she explains. “Using recognized methodology, we calculate that molded articles made from the 70 Shore A material can achieve a 33 percent reduction and the 80 Shore A material a 55 percent reduction in product carbon footprint (PCF).

About E7T11 and E8T12

The two ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) rubber material grades are the 70 Shore A hardness E7T11 and 80 Shore A E8T12, both ideal for the production of O-Rings, gaskets and custom-engineered products. The materials are suitable for sealing solutions in the automotive, processing, manufacturing, automation, energy, agriculture, and construction and mining equipment sectors.
They can be used in engines, doors, pumps, valves, line connector seals, household appliances, air cylinders, solar panels, marine hatches and doors, and an array of components for heating, ventilation, air conditioning, freezing and refrigeration.

Raw material partnership

The materials were developed in partnership with raw materials supplier Arlanxeo. The two EPDM compounds are created from polymers partly derived from used cooking oil, straw, forestry residue and tall oil.
Arlanxeo’s bio-circular EPDM grades are ISCC PLUS certified using the “mass balance approach” which tracks the use of bio-circular feedstock in the production of their rubber. This guarantees that the volume of bio-circular products sold under the Keltan® Eco-BC polymers label is consistent with the source feedstock.
The E7T11 calculation is based on a 214 O-Ring manufactured in Tewkesbury, England, compared to a conventional fossil-based EPDM O-Ring. The E8T12 calculation is based on PHE gasket molded in Czechowice, Poland. Powered by Sphera Solutions, Inc. ©2025. DEKRA certification of methodology pending.
Writer: Donna Guinivan
Photos: Trelleborg