In a previous July
12, 2019 blog (click here to read), I provided some data on the amount of
plastic waste globally generated each year and how much of it is recycled,
either by mechanical or chemical processes.
In this blog, I am identifying
four chemical companies that are developing one of the chemical methods –
pyrolysis – for recycling plastic waste (other chemical methods, e.g., solvolysis
and gasification, will be written about in future blogs). Extensively searching the Internet, I could
find that four of the fifty largest global chemical companies (the fifty being
based on the 2018 Chemical and Engineering News report identifying the top fifty;
click here to read report) have pilot investigations of technologies and processes
for recycling waste plastics using pyrolysis.
The following is a brief description of what each is doing:
BASF, at the pilot plant level, has generated new
plastics from the cracking of pyrolysis oil.
The pyrolysis oil was provided by Recenso. The plastics are being tested by BASF
partners who might be eventual buyers of the plastics. So far, the plastics have been meeting
necessary use standards.
Dow has signed an agreement with the Dutch company
Fuenix Ecology Group to buy pyrolysis oil from Fuenix. Fuenix produces the pyrolysis oil from waste plastics. Dow will process the oil into new polymers at
its Terneuzen, Netherlands plant. Dow
has a goal of incorporating 100,000 metric tons of pyrolysis oil into its plastic
production by 2025.
Ineos Styrolution, a subsidiary of Ineos, has entered into a joint
development agreement with Agilyx for a recycling plant at its polystyrene
plant in Illinois. Agilyx’s pyrolysis process
for recycling waste polystyrene will be used at the plant.
Sabic is investigating the introduction of volumes
of pyrolysis oil feedstock, provided to it by the company Plastic Energy, into Sabic’s
cracker at Geleen, the Netherlands, producing polyethylene and polypropylene. The pyrolysis oil was produced by Plastic Energy
from mixed plastic wastes.
It is interesting
that each of the four companies have agreements with other, smaller companies
to provide the pyrolysis oil. This suggests
the need for agreements with various contributors in a complex undertaking that
recycling plastics appears to be. It
also might be a strategy that serves the larger companies well, in case recycling
plastic wastes by pyrolysis does not develop into a successful business for these
companies.
An excellent report from
BCG (Boston Consulting Group), entitled “A Circular Solution to Plastic Waste”,
is summarized at this link. The full report
can be read by clicking here (pdf file).
This report identifies well the challenges, advantages, economics, and other
aspects of the chemical processing of plastics waste by pyrolysis.
