Butadien Kralupy a.s. was founded in April 2007 as a joint-venture aimed at building and consequently operating the Butadien II Production Unit to produce 1,3-butadiene with the annual production capacity of 120,000 tonnes of 1,3-butadiene. The majority shareholder is ORLEN UNIPETROL, a.s. with 51 % of shares, and SYNTHOS Kralupy a.s. holds 49 % of shares. Early in March 2010 the extraordinary general meeting of the company approved an increase of the Company's registered capital from CZK 150,000,000.- to CZK 300,000,000.- by subscribing for 300 pcs of new ordinary registered shares in the documentary form with the nominal value of CZK 500,000.- per one share. The issue price totalled CZK 150,000,000.- and was subscribed in the shareholding ratio – ORLEN UNIPETROL, a.s. 51 % of new shares and SYNTHOS Kralupy a.s. 49 % of new shares.
After founding the Company, the main activities of Butadien Kralupy a.s. focused on the selection of licensed technology for 1,3-butadiene production and on the opening of the tender procedure to choose the general contractor to build the Butadien II production plant. Based on the tender, the JSR BUTADIENE PROCESS licensed by the Japanese JSR CORPORATION was selected. It is an advanced process of separating 1,3-butadiene from the mixture of hydrocarbons with C4 chains. The hydrocarbon mixture contains acetylene derivatives (methyl acetylene, ethyl acetylene and vinyl acetylene), butene and butane isomers, traces of sulphur and particularly 1,3-butadiene, which yields from the mixture as the main product. The separation process uses the extractive distillation technology and a three-solvent system as the separation agent.
In May 2007 a turnkey contract was signed with the general contractor Chemoprojekt, a.s. After the contract was signed, planning activities started in order to prepare the documentation for the planning permission, building licence proceedings and the integrated permit (IPPC). In August 2008 the building licence was issued and consequently the general contractor Chemoprojekt, a.s. Praha started the real building of BUTADIEN II Production Unit. In spite of many problems and difficulties encountered during the building works from the second half of 2009, the permission for a year-long test operation was obtained in March 2010. During the guarantee test in September 2010, engineering and technological parameters were successfully verified and in October the "BUTADIEN II. Production Unit Preliminary Acceptance" protocol was signed. In March 2011 the “BUTADIEN II Production Unit Final Acceptance” protocol was signed.
The Butadien II Production Unit design was based on the Best Available Techniques (BAT) aimed at manufacturing products corresponding to the best quality, with minimised energy requirements and lowest possible environmental impacts.
The structure (BUTADIEN II production units) was transferred from trial to permanent operation (final acceptance) in March 2011.
On 20 September 2010, Butadien Kralupy a.s. successfully completed the registration of its products 1,3-Butadiene, Raffinate 1 and Acetylene Gas as required by Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH).
On 18 February 2011 Butadien Kralupy a.s. successfully passed an audit by LRQA of its certification and quality management system under the ISO 14001:2004, ISO 9001:2008 standards and obtained relevant certificates for its products – 1.3 Butadien, Rafinát 1 and Acetylene gas.
On 3 February 2012 Butadien Kralupy a.s. successfully passed a verification audit by LRQA of its certification and quality management system under the ISO 14001:2004, ISO 9001:2008 standards.