Post-consumer waste homogenization for advance recycling

AI Quick Summary

Post consumer polymer waste are heterogenous in shape, composition and impurities which hinders reproducibility in small to medium scale R&D development. The aim of this project is to source different polymer waste quality, extrude them in a compounder and produce standardized pellets. These pellets will then be converted into short chain hydrocarbons using plastogaz patented technology. Plastics are widespread in our modern societies, for example to protect out valuable goods or to facilitate transport of damageable goods like foods or beverages. Today, plastic is conserved as disposable, in a typical linear “use-discard” economy. Transitioning from a linear to a circular economy will drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the extraction of the materials as well as at their end of life. Therefore, plastic waste should not end in the environment or landfills, and it should not be incinerated. Instead, it should be recycled and reused, or simply removed when possible.Currently, mechanical recycling is the method that has the lowest impact on the environment but is limited to clean, well sorted single polymers streams. Sorting methods are rapidly improving, and an increasing amount of waste is being made available for mechanical recycling. At the same time, companies are making efforts to redesign their products for recycling. Even with redesigned feedstock, the mechanical recycling process lowers the polymer quality, and mechanically recycled plastics cannot be used for food contact applications or high-quality materials, and hence is sometimes referred to as “downcycling”.Hence, chemical recycling, i.e., breaking down the polymers back to their monomers or other small molecules will become a technology of choice to manufacture polymers with virgin quality from mixed waste streams. At the time, the state-of-the-art chemical recycling processes i.e., pyrolysis where the materials are heated to temperatures above 450°C in the absence of oxygen are thermally broken produces an oil that needs to be cleaned, distilled, and refined. After these energy demanding steps, merely 20% of the oil is suitable for material applications and the remaining 80% will have a fuel application. Therefore, there is a clear and unmet need to improve chemical recycling (pyrolysis) in terms of yield and energy consumption.When a polymer is contacted with our catalyst in the presence of hydrogen, it reacts in a controlled manner producing four times more usable liquid of higher quality than pyrolysis at lower energy costs. The reaction occurs ~150°C bellow pyrolysis and allows heat integration thanks to the heat produced by the reaction.The produced liquid (naphtha) can directly be fed into downstream assets for the manufacture of virgin quality plastic products, without any form or pre-treatment or refinery, which is a marked advantage over any existing technology in the field.Hence, our reaction improves the actual state-of-the art in quality, yield, energy efficiency and reduces the processing steps. All combined there is a clear advantage to develop such technology not only for the climate but also economically. This project idea will focus only on the polymer waste preparation.Three different waste quality will be sourced in Switzerland and Europe. They will be compound separately in a twin-screw extruder several times until the produced pellet is homogeneous.The three different grade of standardized pellets will then be transformed by plastogaz SA into short chain hydrocarbons using their patented technology.

Project Idea Metadata

Project Idea Name: Post-consumer waste homogenization for advance recycling
Date: 3/9/2022 9:53:51 AM
Administrators:
- Antoine van Muyden

Project Idea Description

Plastics are widespread in our modern societies, for example to protect out valuable goods or to facilitate transport of damageable goods like foods or beverages. Today, plastic is conserved as disposable, in a typical linear “use-discard” economy. Transitioning from a linear to a circular economy will drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the extraction of the materials as well as at their end of life. Therefore, plastic waste should not end in the environment or landfills, and it should not be incinerated. Instead, it should be recycled and reused, or simply removed when possible.

Currently, mechanical recycling is the method that has the lowest impact on the environment but is limited to clean, well sorted single polymers streams. Sorting methods are rapidly improving, and an increasing amount of waste is being made available for mechanical recycling. At the same time, companies are making efforts to redesign their products for recycling. Even with redesigned feedstock, the mechanical recycling process lowers the polymer quality, and mechanically recycled plastics cannot be used for food contact applications or high-quality materials, and hence is sometimes referred to as “downcycling”.

Hence, chemical recycling, i.e., breaking down the polymers back to their monomers or other small molecules will become a technology of choice to manufacture polymers with virgin quality from mixed waste streams. At the time, the state-of-the-art chemical recycling processes i.e., pyrolysis where the materials are heated to temperatures above 450°C in the absence of oxygen are thermally broken produces an oil that needs to be cleaned, distilled, and refined. After these energy demanding steps, merely 20% of the oil is suitable for material applications and the remaining 80% will have a fuel application. Therefore, there is a clear and unmet need to improve chemical recycling (pyrolysis) in terms of yield and energy consumption.

When a polymer is contacted with our catalyst in the presence of hydrogen, it reacts in a controlled manner producing four times more usable liquid of higher quality than pyrolysis at lower energy costs. The reaction occurs ~150°C bellow pyrolysis and allows heat integration thanks to the heat produced by the reaction.

The produced liquid (naphtha) can directly be fed into downstream assets for the manufacture of virgin quality plastic products, without any form or pre-treatment or refinery, which is a marked advantage over any existing technology in the field.

Hence, our reaction improves the actual state-of-the art in quality, yield, energy efficiency and reduces the processing steps. All combined there is a clear advantage to develop such technology not only for the climate but also economically. This project idea will focus only on the polymer waste preparation.

Three different waste quality will be sourced in Switzerland and Europe. They will be compound separately in a twin-screw extruder several times until the produced pellet is homogeneous.

The three different grade of standardized pellets will then be transformed by plastogaz SA into short chain hydrocarbons using their patented technology.