A pair of pyrolysis reactors have been successfully installed at LyondellBasell’s MoReTec-1 chemical recycling project in Wesseling, Germany, according to the company.
The plant will convert post-consumer plastics waste into feedstock for producing new plastics materials offered under the company’s CirculenRevive brand, which provides product solutions for a wide range of applications, including medical and food packaging.
It will have an annual processing capacity equivalent to the amount of plastics packaging waste generated by more than 1.2 million German citizens per year.
Writing on LinkedIn, LyondellBasell said the reactor installations marked a ‘milestone’ for the project.
‘Hard-to-recycle plastics’
‘Once operational, the reactors, together with our proprietary catalyst, will break down hard-to-recycle plastics waste into smaller molecules that can be converted into valuable feedstock for the production of new polymers suitable for demanding applications like flexible food packaging,’ stated the post.
MoReTec technology converts polyolefin waste into pyrolysis oil and pyrolysis gas.
Pyrolysis oil substitutes for fossil-based materials used in polymer production, while pyrolysis gas streams are typically consumed as fuel.
The technology electrifies the core reaction process. This allows the unit to operate entirely on renewable electricity.
Advantages of MoReTec
A scalable single-train design, along with low operating temperatures enabled by catalysts and heat-transfer design, are claimed to be additional advantages of this technology.
According to LyondellBasell, these benefits will enable the MoReTec technology to achieve high plastics-to-plastics conversion rates, helping increase circularity.
“There is an issue with plastics waste, and so we want to find the solution to a plastics waste issue, but there is also a desire then to transform the plastics back into plastics,” said Martino Gabellich, vice-president of advanced (chemical) recycling and low carbon solutions, in an accompanying video on the post.
“Our scientists have developed a very elegant solution to use electricity to provide heat to the reactors MoReTec allow to reduce, significantly, the carbon footprint compared with a fossil alternative.”
