EPDM Material with Sustainable Content

Abstract

On behalf of Volvo Cars Corporation, a study has been conducted of what types of EPDM materials with sustainable content exist on the market. This has been done as Volvo Cars aims to reduce its climate emissions by 40% per car by the year 2025, but also to become completely climate neutral by 2040. EPDM materials are made up of many different of components, the most of which are extracted from crude oil, which is environmentally harmful and bad for the human health. This is because oil is a precious and nonrenewable resource, polluting hydrocarbons are discharged into the atmosphere, and oil-based polymers degrade slowly, resulting in prolonged polymer pollution. A number of companies were found in this thesis, where some of them either had an EPDM material with sustainable content or were producers of a sustainable component that are included in the EPDM material. More investigation of the area is needed to be done for future work, however, the highlighted companies are good candidates for a future material change in the dynamic sealing system of Volvo Cars.