INNOVATION | STYRENIC PLASTICS


and additives, before finally separating the original polymer from the solvent. The end-product is a cleaned polymer that is pelletised and may be used as new raw material resin. The essential oil solvent is safe and can be reused to recycle additional material. Polystyvert’s dissolution technology includes a


Right: Elix Polymers has signed a Circular Economy partnership agreement with Repsol


purification/decontamination process that removes all contaminants. The purification technology offers the ability to treat all types of feedstock, from industrial waste to post-consumer streams, and can eliminate a wide range of hard-to-remove contami- nants such as pigments and brominated flame- retardants. “Using this method, recycled polysty- rene is produced at a competitive price,” says Solenne Brouard, CEO of Polystyvert. The high purity recycled material can be reused for upcycled PS products, including food grade applications. Polystyvert is working to build its first full-scale recycling facility in Montreal and is in discussions regarding several recycling facilities in other geographical areas, including Europe. It has a demonstration plant that has been running in Quebec since 2018. Polystyvert and the rigid


and flexible packaging divisions of Grupo Lantero announced a collaboration last year to validate its dissolution technology for form-fill-seal (FFS) yogurt packaging applications. Testing is taking place at Grupo Lantero’s Innotech innovation and technology centre, which serves the com- pany’s Coexpan rigid packaging division and Emsur flexible packaging division. The technology was used in the first validation stage to remove contaminants from feedstocks, such as dyes and pigments. Next, two types of rPS materials were made, including a formulation with 50% post-industrial content from an ABA structure, and a grade from a monolayer 100% post-industri- al PS. Innotech then extruded the rPS pellets into sheets, which were thermoformed on FFS industrial yogurt packaging systems into yogurt pots and analysed at its development centre laboratory. Elix Polymers, the manufacturer of specialised


styrenic-based thermoplastics, says it is the first ABS polymer producer to receive ISCC Plus certification for its production facility, in Tarragona, Spain. Also in 2020, it incorporated its Sustainable Portfolio Solutions and its Circular Plastics and Responsible Innovation developments under the new E-Loop brand name which encompasses all of


20 PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD | January/February 2023


its Circular Economy activities. The company also signed a collaboration


IMAGE: ELIX


agreement with energy and chemicals company Repsol, through which Repsol will supply recycled styrene to Elix Polymers on a regular basis, starting in 2021. Repsol, which itself received ISCC Plus certification in 2019 for all of its production centres of polyolefin and other circular petrochemicals including recycled styrene, supplies the recycled products from the chemical recycling of post-con- sumer plastic waste that is not suitable for mechan- ical recycling. Elix Polymers will use the certified circular materials to produce high-performance technical polymers such as ABS and SAN. The agreement also includes the possibility of developing joint projects in the field of circularity for applications with strict standards and require- ments such as automotive exterior and interior parts, medical devices, toys and small household items. Elix Polymers last year launched its E-Loop ABS circular material grade developed from a sustainable acrylonitrile monomer material, offered by AnQore, a specialist Euro- pean chemical supplier and acrylonitrile producer based in


the Netherlands. AnQore’s Econitrile is an ISCC Plus certified sustainable acrylonitrile that is made


from non-fossil feedstocks, which it says has a 60% lower carbon footprint when compared to its incumbent materials. AnQore, which produces Econitrile at its plant on the Chemelot industrial site in


Geleen, the Netherlands, says two key feedstocks are needed to make the sustainable acrylonitrile. The feedstocks of propylene and ammonia come from ISCC Plus certified suppliers Sabic and OCI-Nitrogen. “They guarantee the sustainable nature of these chemicals by co-feeding sustain- able feedstocks, like bio-naphtha and bio-gas, to their plants (also at the Chemelot site) and assign- ing these to ammonia and propylene on a mass balance basis,” according to the company. Elix Polymers, AnQore and OCI-Nitrogen announced last year that a major European consum- er goods manufacturer will transition to Elix E-Loop ABS made with Econitrile, in a move to substantially reduce the carbon footprint of its products. Americas Styrenics (AmSty), a 50/50 joint


venture between plastics resin maker Trinseo and Chevron Phillips Chemical, has made several advances in polystyrene recycling using mechanical,


www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com


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