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AMI’s recycling research
AMI’s research into mechanical and chemical recycling provides you with the knowledge needed for strategic decision-making in this rapidly evolving sector. Our quarterly updates of the report Chemical Recycling Global Status in particular have proved invaluable for many of our clients. For further information please email
silke.einschuetz@amiplastics.com
Punkt and Synextra started a strategic partnership in Europe to focus on sorting plastics waste for both chemical recycling and mechanical recycling. Even optical sorting technology company Tomra is making a direct investment in capacity. Its mid- scale plant in Germany, costing €50-60m, will have annual capacity of 80,000 tonnes when it becomes operational between 2024 and 2025. Tomra says it will source pre-sorted mixed post-consumer plastic material otherwise lost to landfill and incineration and upgrade it via a splitting and grading process at the facility. The output will consist of more than 10 different polymer fractions, both flexible and rigid plastics, which will be sold to recyclers to be used in mechanical and chemical recycling processes. It is also entering partnerships to build sorting capacity, for example a joint-venture with Plastretur to build a €50m sorting plant in Norway.
Material preparation The overlap in the supply chains for chemical and mechanical recycling includes extrusion technol- ogy. Suppliers highlight that material sorted for a chemical recycling process benefit further from the preparation that extrusion can deliver. Coperion says its ZSK twin screw extruders efficiently pro- duce a homogeneous, devolatilised melt with a temperature of up to 350°C, which is in optimal condition for pyrolysis. Other materials useful for chemical recycling, such as catalysts, can be added and mixed as well. In July 2023, Coperion announced it was supplying a ZSK Mc18 twin screw extruder and peripherals to Indaver for a plastics-to-chemicals plant in Antwerp, Belgium. This will have a planned capacity to convert 30,000 tonnes of waste plastics. Coperion says: “Indaver decided upon Coperion’s twin screw extruder technology to ensure energy- efficient, continuous reactor loading in the chemi- cal plastics recycling process. Along with the ZSK extruder, the order includes Coperion K-Tron gravimetric feeders, a vacuum unit, a closing valve, and the melt line to the reactor.” Renov8 is another Coperion customer in chemical recycling, this project being focused on
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recycling PMMA. The system installed by Coperion at the KEZAD Polymers Park in Abu Dhabi includes material handling, two ARW discharge agitators with discharge screws and two Smart Weigh Belt feeders, as well as a ZSK 92 Mc18 twin screw extruder, a vacuum system and a condenser. Recycling technology group Erema is so sure of the chemical recycling market opportunities that it has set up a business called Chemarema dedicated to the market. At the K2022 exhibition, it discussed how its core technology for mechanical recycling – involving its patented Counter Current precondi- tioning unit – is being adapted to chemical recy- cling where customers need much larger throughput rates than in mechanical recycling. Mura Technology, mentioned at the start of this
article, selected Chemarema extruders for its HydroPRS chemical recycling plant in the UK. Erema says the technology “quickly transforms difficult-to-handle, post-consumer mixed plastic waste into well-defined melt streams for direct transfer into the chemical recycling reactor”. The single-screw extruders used for Mura’s HydroPRS technology provide high-temperature melt streams at pressures of up to 300 bar without the additional use of a melt pump. Erema says the system saves energy, provides feedstock flexibility (that can include films, flakes, agglomerates, rigids, regrind, fibre), demonstrates robustness when it comes to highly abrasive post-consumer plastic feedstocks, and removes residual air. Klaus Lederer, Business Development Manager Chemical Recycling at Erema, says: “By working together with Mura Technology we created a thorough understanding for the needs of chemical recyclers. This allows us to drive our development further, enabling our customers to work with lowest quality mixed plastic waste. This is our contribution to establishing chemical recycling as a comple- mentary technology stream to mechanical recy- cling, focusing on those feedstocks that would otherwise not be recycled.”
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Chemical Recycling – Global Insight 2024
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