In brief
Major chemical companies are backing pyrolysis plants for converting plastic waste into hydrocarbon feedstocks that can be turned into plastics again. They see it as a way to capture more plastics than they can with conventional mechanical recycling alone. But conducting pyrolysis at a significant scale will pose challenges. For instance, developers of pyrolysis processes have to tune their plants so they can convert a variety of polymers into products that petrochemical makers can use. Moreover, some plastics, such as polyvinyl chloride, can complicate the pyrolysis systems. How the technology works in the real world will affect the public’s perception of the plastics industry.
In September, Dow declared a milestone in its effort to mitigate the flow of plastic waste. The big chemical company and Mura Technology took the wraps off a project in Böhlen, Germany, to build a plant based on Mura’s supercritical steam process. The facility will convert mixed plastic waste into hydrocarbon liquids that Dow will load into its ethylene cracker at the site for conversion back into new plastics.
The plant will be the largest of its kind in Europe, diverting 120,000 metric tons (t) of waste per year from incinerators. It will be six times the size of Mura’s first plant, still under construction in Teesside, England. The partners hope to build additional facilities at Dow sites in Europe and the US for a total of 600,000 t of annual capacity.
