INNOVATION | CHEMICAL RECYCLING
Above: Plastic Energy’s chemical recycling facility in Seville, Spain
required. At the same time, the company is in discussions with various suppliers of liquefied waste plastic. In 2022, the company also acquired the European rights to Alterra Energy’s liquefac- tion technology. Neste adds that it is not interested in only keeping that technology for its own use but will be used through its value chain. The company is talking to parties interested in using this technol- ogy in Europe to scale up liquefaction capacities. There is a massive opportunity for chemical
recycling to grow in the current market, according to UK-headquartered Plastic Energy. “EU plastic packaging recycling targets are set at 50% by 2025, and 55% by 2030,” says Carlos Monreal, CEO. “Recycled content targets through the PPWR [the EU’s proposed Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation] are also currently under discussion in the EU Parliament but are likely to be equally as ambi- tious. These targets cannot be achieved through mechanical recycling alone, which is why chemically recycled content will be crucial for the packaging sector in the coming years. The chemical recycling sector as a whole is scaling up to try and meet this demand, but investment and supportive policies are needed to continue this growth trajectory.” The chemical recycling sector as a whole is focused on efficiency of plants, as well as scale-up of capacities. “The demand is there for recycled content, so the focus is on getting the infrastructure in place to meet that demand,” says Monreal. “Current technical areas of interest are focused on plant efficiency and output quality. Plant efficiency is being addressed by significantly scaling up capacity size and improving processes to reduce emissions. Output quality has a lot to do with the feedstock and individual technolo- gies. In Plastic Energy’s case, we ensure our Tacoil output quality meets the exact specifications of our petrochemical partners, ensuring maximum compat- ibility for it to be used to replace fossil oils in the manufacturing of circular polymers.”
20 PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD | July/August 2023
Plastic Energy has developed a new plant design that is larger and more efficient than its current plants that are in operation. It says this newer plant design will have maximum efficiency, with minimal losses, and so Tacoil output will be significantly increased. In addition, the company has also recently signed an agreement to access feedstock for its plant in the Netherlands with joint venture partner SABIC. The plant is in its final stages of construc- tion, and once operational will have a capacity of 20,000 tpa of plastics waste. The agreement for the sorting and pre-treatment of post-consumer plastic waste to be used as feedstock for this plant was signed with Siemer and Landbell in early July. For the future, Plastic Energy is looking into
incorporating digital twin technology for process optimisation and performance improvement, and AI technology for high-tech waste sortation.
Collaborations An interesting feature of the chemical recycling sector is the large number of collaborative ven- tures. Recenso and packaging company Südpack are collaborating on the chemical recycling of complex laminated films from the packaging industry. The collaboration aims to convert produc- tion-related reusable materials into high-quality pyrolysis oil on an industrial scale. The pyrolysis oil will be supplied to the plastics industry as raw material for producing high-quality granules of virgin-grade quality. North American PS producer AmSty is collabo-
rating with packaging firm Pactiv Evergreen. The companies aim to offer PS foam packaging prod- ucts with AmSty’s post-consumer recycled content derived from advanced recycling technologies. TotalEnergies and French plastics recycler
Paprec have signed a long-term commercial agreement to develop a French value chain for advanced recycling of plastic film wastes. The agreement will secure the supply of TotalEnergies’ future advanced plastic recycling plant in Grandpu- its. Citeo, the main organisation in charge of end-of-life household packaging in France, will provide a stream of flexible plastic waste sorted from post-consumer packaging. This stream will be delivered to the Paprec Plastiques 80 plant in Amiens, France, where a first-of-its-kind sorting and preparation line will be built. TotalEnergies will use this French-origin waste in its advanced recycling plant at the Grandpuits zero-crude platform and will produce recycled plastics which have the same properties as food-grade virgin plastics. The advanced recycling plant, built by TotalEnergies
www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com
IMAGE: PLASTIC ENERGY
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