FEEDSTOCK
The need to enhance feedstock for chemical recycling has led to investments in sorting capacity and opportunities for companies in the supply chain. By David Eldridge
Upgrading feedstock for chemical recycling
Mura Technology recently opened its chemical recycling plant in Teesside, UK, utilising its Hydro PRS process, and joining only a handful of compa- nies that have started operations to chemically recycle plastics waste. Many more companies are planning to follow, as projects around the world gradually make their way to start-up (see next article in this publication). As these early projects make progress, issues are now coming into focus that affect a majority of the companies with plans based on chemical recycling processes that aim to contribute to plastics circularity. AMI Consulting, in the quarterly update of its Chemical Recycling Global Status report released in October, says: “The chemical recycling industry, particularly in Europe, keeps calling for legal clarity regarding the acceptance of chemical recycling as a recycling technology, and the rules to be applied in mass balance accounting. This is considered vital to unlock necessary investments into new projects and site development.”
In addition to the need for large-scale invest- Chemical Recycling – Global Insight 2024
ment, “consensus has emerged in the industry that… the availability of sufficient feedstocks is a key limiting factor in the further development of the chemical recycling industry”, wrote Silke Einschuetz, Senior Consultant Recycling & Sustain- ability at AMI, in the October edition of Plastics Recycling World (published by AMI). “Similarly, there is acknowledgement that input materials into chemical recycling processes need to be cleansed and sorted to achieve high quality outputs. It is thus surprising to still see new companies entering the market landscape with the claim that their technol- ogy does not require any sorting, drying, or pre-treatment of waste upstream”.
Need for sorting The fact that feedstock for pyrolysis processes does need to come from a waste stream that has been sorted is evident from the number of polyolefins companies investing in sorting capacity. In Novem- ber 2023,OMV announced a joint project with Interzero for a large-scale sorting facility that will
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Main image: Tomra is utilising its technologies to sort mixed plastics waste into fractions for mechanical and chemical recycling
IMAGE: TOMRA
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