INNOVATION | CHEMICAL RECYCLING
Right: Mura Technology will use its Hydro-PRT process at a plant in Teesside, UK
considered unrecyclable.” Mura’s Hydro-PRT process uses supercritical
water (water under high pressure and temperature) to convert post-consumer multi layered, flexible and rigid plastics such as films, pots, tubs, and trays, which are largely considered unrecyclable via traditional means, into hydrocarbon feedstocks. The company says there is no limit to the number of times the same material can be recycled, meaning Hydro-PRT has the potential to greatly increase circularity. Mura says it has received funding which will enable it to begin scaling the technology worldwide, with plans for more sites in the US, Southeast Asia, and Germany. Brazil-based petrochemical company Braskem says it considers achieving a circular economy one of the most important challenges of today. “Braskem is at the forefront in developing technol- ogy for recycling plastic waste,” claims Alexander Van Veen, Commercial Director for Europe & Asia at Braskem. “One of Braskem’s innovative ap- proaches uses an exclusive catalyst that functions like scissors, breaking down plastic waste into monomers [which can be] used in a wide range of everyday products. Braskem’s strategy for chemi- cal recycling is based on four strategic pillars, which include open innovation practices, collaborations with universities for the development of proprietary technologies, and continuous investment in these technolo- gies. Additionally, Braskem establishes offtake partnerships.”
Above: Alexander Van Veen, Commercial Director for Europe & Asia at Braskem, says the company’s strategy involves collaboration
Pyrolysis and beyond ExxonMobil, Cyclyx International, Sealed Air, and Ahold Delhaize USA announced their intention to become the first venture in the US to success- fully launch a circular food packaging proof-of- concept leveraging ExxonMobil’s Exxtend technol- ogy which breaks down plastic waste into its molecular building blocks while removing contami- nants. Ahold Delhaize USA brand Food Lion is collecting plastic waste at select locations and Cyclyx, a joint venture between Agilyx Corporation and ExxonMobil, is responsible for sorting and pre-processing it before delivering the waste to ExxonMobil’s Baytown, Texas facility. Sealed Air later converts the certified-circular polyethylene (PE) resins into food-grade flexible film. This multi-partner, multi-stage collaboration is now being evaluated for scale. “This project helps demonstrate how Exxtend technology can widen the range of plastic materials that can be recycled while delivering certified-circular polymers with the critical performance attributes of virgin plastic,”
26 PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD | July/August 2024
said Dan Moore, Vice President, Polyethylene, at ExxonMobil. LyondellBasell is building a plant at its site in
Wesseling, Germany, using its proprietary MoReTec technology which produces both pyrolysis oil and pyrolysis gas. The new plant is expected to have a capacity of 50,000 tonnes/yr when construction is completed by the end of 2025. In a separate project, the company has secured a location for an integrated hub in Knapsack, Germany, which will combine various sorting and recycling operations when it starts operations in the first quarter of 2026. “The industrial park in Knapsack is the ideal location for our integrated hub as is it close to our world-scale facilities in Wesseling and will allow us to develop additional technologies for the recy- cling of plastic waste,” said Yvonne van der Laan, LyondellBasell Executive Vice President, Circular and Low Carbon Solutions. “The integration of various technologies will allow us to build scale and offer our customers a wide range of products from recycled and renewable resources.” Last summer MOL Group announced it was
partnering with Lummus on the implementation of pyrolysis technology through its Green Circle business unit at sites in Hungary and Slovakia. Gabriel Szabó, Executive Vice President of MOL Group Downstream, said: “MOL Group is actively building a strong plastic recycling and waste integration portfolio as we are aware of its crucial role in the circular economy, and sustainable business models require [a] mindset that considers everything as raw material and potential energy source.” Lummus has also formed an agreement with Dongyang Environment Group to deploy the same technology at a plant in Seosan, South Korea, which is to be operated by Dongyang Environment’s
www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com
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IMAGE: MURA TECHNOLOGY
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