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Sumitomo Chemical Begins Operations of Newly Established Innovation Center, Consolidates Environmental Impact Reduction Technology Research Groups to Accelerate Creation of New Value
Jun. 27, 2024
Sumitomo Chemical held a construction completion ceremony at its new research facility Innovation Center MEGURU (“MEGURU”) at its Chiba site located in Sodegaura City, Chiba, Japan, on June 26, 2024. Operations at MEGURU then began the same day. This research facility has been opened to consolidate and strengthen the Company’s research groups developing technologies for reducing environmental impact at its Chiba site. The Company will further accelerate the development of technologies and materials that contribute to environmental impact reduction and seek to create new value through these solutions.
As the global movement towards achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 gains momentum, the Sumitomo Chemical Group is making a major pivot in its petrochemicals business, directing its resources to value creation through environmental impact reduction technology. Research and development at the Chiba site is at the core of this effort, and its transformation is the objective behind its opening of MEGURU and the consolidation of the research groups.
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A view of the exterior of the new facility
The Chiba site has been the research and manufacturing center of Sumitomo Chemical’s petrochemicals business. It has offered polymer design, catalyst, process, compound and processing technologies while also providing pilot facilities to scale new technologies for commercialization. Building on the technological resources and infrastructure at the site, Sumitomo Chemical will strive to create innovative technologies at MEGURU that help lessen environmental impact, including chemical recycling and material recycling technologies, and to establish them not only in Japan, but also globally.
Sumitomo Chemical will also transfer and consolidate the personnel for polymer research, super engineering plastics, functional chemicals and other products located in the Tsukuba and Osaka sites to MEGURU in the Chiba site, the hub of the Company’s polymer materials research and development. Through this reorganization, the Company will establish a system that can further strengthen internal and external collaboration, and thereby speed up the development of innovative new materials, such as those for next-generation mobility applications and high-speed mobile communication systems.
The name of the new research facility “MEGURU,” which means “circulate” in Japanese, represents Sumitomo Chemical’s reaffirmation of its founding spirit of resolving society’s major issues through business, a return to basics, as well as determination to advance next-generation technology innovation to contribute to a circular economy. Based on this commitment, the Company designed the space in MEGURU so as to promote interaction among researchers while also utilizing an environmentally-friendly design for the new facility, which has been ranked highest in the Building-Housing Energy-efficiency Labeling System and certified as ZEB Ready*.
The Sumitomo Chemical Group will create new value by making the most use of the resources that it has cultivated related to environmental impact reduction technology, and accelerate transformation of its business portfolio to one focused on solution-providing businesses.
* A building that meets the criteria of reducing primary energy consumption by more than 50% from the standard primary energy consumption, excluding renewable energy.
Overview of Innovation Center MEGURU
| Location | 2-1, Kitasode, Sodegaura City, Chiba, Japan |
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| Scale | Seven floors above ground |
| Total floor area | Approximately 19,000m2 |
| Start of operations | June 26, 2024 |
| Major design features that promote energy saving and environmental friendliness |
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Scene of the Ribbon Cutting at the Construction Completion Commemoration Ceremony
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Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd.
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https://www.sumitomo-chem.co.jp/english/contact/public/