INNOVATION | CHEMICAL RECYCLING
yet. In June, ExxonMobil announced it had expand- ed operations at its facility in Baytown, Texas, with a second chemical recycling unit. Combined with the first, which has been in operation since late 2022, the company had processed more than 100m pounds of plastic by May 2025. The company has also bullishly announced additional investments, including a third and fourth Baytown unit and its first unit in Beau- mont, Texas. These projects would increase Exxon- Mobil’s overall capacity to approximately 500m pounds of plastic waste per year. Freepoint Eco-Systems announced the loading
of its first rail car of pyrolysis oil in April for delivery to Shell USA’s refining facility in Norco, Louisiana. Freepoint’s chemical recycling facility in Hebron, Ohio is undergoing commissioning and is de- signed with capacity to convert 180m lbs/yr of waste plastic into pyrolysis oil.
Right: Coperion’s STS 25 Mc11 twin screw extruder is used for catalysed pyrolysis at University of Utrecht in the Netherlands
European moves In July, Freepoint and Source One, based in Germany, entered into a long-term collaboration agreement in Europe where they plan to develop multiple pretreatment facilities for waste streams, such as post-consumer waste, to support the growth of pyroly- sis infrastructure across Europe. Freepoint plans to build a network of pretreat- ment installations in key European markets, it said, with Source One acting as the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractor. These facilities will prepare mixed plastic waste into high-quality feedstock suitable for both advanced and mechanical recycling. Source One’s pretreatment system has already been used in commercial-scale operations. Designed to handle complex waste streams, such as mixed plastic packaging and flexible films, the system reduces energy use and environmental impact and, according to the company, sets a new benchmark for quality, operational efficiency, and compliance with evolving regulatory expectations. “This collaboration marks the beginning of a
pyrolysis to scale commercially and competitively.” Another significant development in Europe came last month when Agilyx announced it would acquire 44% of established recycling group GreenDot Global. Agilyx called the deal a “trans- formative investment” which “significantly strength- ens Agilyx’s presence in the European market” and providing it with a platform for sourcing and supplying feedstock to the chemical recycling industry. GreenDot is the third-largest recycling company in Germany and has a long-held position in packaging recycling in that country. It is also licensed in 29 countries and processes more than 1m tonnes/yr packaging waste, including over 400,000 tons of plastic. The company is expanding its advanced recycling feedstock supply capabili- ties by investing in sorting facilities in Austria and Italy. For 2025, GreenDot’s operations are expect- ed to generate approximately €400m in total sales and double-digit EBITDA. Ranjeet Bhatia, CEO of Agilyx, said: “We are thrilled to expand Agilyx’s reach into Europe as we build a global platform to supply feedstock to the plastic recycling industry. GreenDot is the recognised industry
IMAGE: COPERION
leader in Europe, has tremendous momentum in the fast-developing ad- vanced recycling market, and is a great complement to Agilyx’s existing activities.” The transaction is expected
to close in late Q3 2025, subject to regulatory approval under German foreign direct investment laws, and other conditions.
strategic partnership focused on unlocking the value of plastic waste,” said Jacco de Haas, Chief Commer- cial Officer, Recycling Europe, at Freepoint Eco-Sys- tems. “By combining our feedstock strategy with Source One’s best-in-class pretreatment platform, we are building critical infrastructure that enables
20 PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD | July/August 2025
New processes Progress continues to be made in the development of improved chemical recycling
processes.Coperion and the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands have launched a pilot project using the technology company’s STS 25 Mc11 twin-screw extruder to facilitate catalytic recycling of mixed plastic waste. According to Dr Ina Vollmer at University of Utrecht, this enables lower-temperature pyrolysis and purer product streams while cutting energy use. “Using the extruder, we can achieve an efficient
use of the catalyst,” said Vollmer. “Still, our vision is to allow pyrolysis to take place even in the extruder. We can achieve this by exploiting the mechanical- chemical reaction that occurs within the twin screw extruder, and specifically convert the polymer at
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