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Advanced Recycling on the Rise – Rapid Growth in Capacities at Global & European level 

Published: February 23, 2024
Author: TEXTILE VALUE CHAIN

The update and expansion of the nova-Institute’s report “Mapping of  advanced plastic waste recycling technologies and their global capacities”  provides a detailed insight into technological advances, identifies key  players in the field and describes the current state of advanced recycling  in Europe and worldwide. 

Hürth, 22 February 2023: Advanced recycling technologies are developing at a fast pace, with new  players constantly appearing on the market, from start-ups to chemistry giants and everything in  between. New plants are being built, new capacities are being achieved, and new partnerships are  established. Due to these dynamic developments, it is difficult to keep track of everything. The report  “Mapping of advanced plastic waste recycling technologies and their global capacities” aims to clear up  this jungle of information providing a structured overview and in-depth insight. It focusses on profiling  more than 130 available technologies and providers of advanced and especially chemical recycling  solutions as well as pre- and post-processing technologies. New company profiles were added and all  profiles were revised and updated to the year 2023. For the first time a comprehensive evaluation of the  global input and output capacities was carried out for which more than 340 planned as well as installed  and operating plants including their specific product yields were mapped. This detailed report provides  a unique insight into the current landscape of advanced recycling and emphasises its rapidly growing  importance on a global and European level. 

Advanced recycling technologies to complement mechanical recycling 

Besides conventional mechanical recycling and with regard to recent discussions on the improvement  of recycling rates, a wide spectrum of advanced recycling technologies is moving into focus. Mechanical  recycling alone only offers limited options, its further development as well as the development of new  advanced technologies will therefore continue which highlights the need for a large spectrum of different  recycling solutions that complement each other. With mechanical recycling, contaminations cannot be  removed from the plastics waste streams, which is why mechanically recycled plastics are not approved  for food contact applications. Furthermore, if a plastic is repeatedly mechanically recycled, the material  loses its performance-quality and characteristics depending on the number of recycling loops and the  particular polymer. These issues can therefore not be solved with mechanical recycling alone. An even  greater limitation is set by the usable raw materials. In cases of mixed plastic waste or mixed waste containing various plastics and organic waste, mechanical recycling is no option, or allows only partial solutions with considerable effort of pre-treatment. In consequence, these waste streams mostly end up  in landfill or incineration instead of further processing them into a new feedstock. This is why advanced  recycling technologies are crucial for the circular economy. 

With advanced recycling a toolbox of versatile technologies is available to address plastic waste streams  in different compositions and qualities in order to transform them into a range of different raw materials  that can be reintroduced at different positions along the value chain of polymers and plastics. The  technologies include material recycling based on dissolution (physical process) from which polymers  can be obtained. Furthermore, numerous chemical recycling technologies are available that are capable  to depolymerise a targeted polymer to its building units (monomers) via enzymolysis (biochemical  process), solvolysis (chemical process), and thermal depolymerisation (thermochemical process).  Another group of chemical recycling technologies are thermochemical processes which currently  achieve the largest capacities. These technologies are based on pyrolysis, gasification and incineration  coupled with Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) which are capable to convert plastic waste into  secondary valuable chemicals as well as naphtha, syngas, and COwhich can be used as feedstock  for the production of new polymers. 

Overall, the report presents 127 advanced recycling technologies that currently are available on the  market or will soon be. The majority of identified technologies are located in Europe including first and  foremost the Netherlands and Germany, followed by North America, Rest of the World, China, Japan,  CIS, Middle East & Africa. This report also features six pre- and post-processing technology providers  which will play a key role in providing add-on solutions for feedstock pre-treatment prior advanced  recycling as well as for the conversion of secondary valuable materials into chemicals, materials, and  fuels. 

A detailed look into the technologies and their providers worldwide 

The report “Mapping of advanced plastic waste recycling technologies and their global capacities”  provides an in-depth insight into advanced recycling technologies and their providers. More than 100  technologies and their status are presented in detail listing the companies, their strategies and  investment as well as cooperation partners. To ensure the highest quality of available market data, nova  market studies built on top of latest insights from market experts, thorough research and a large number  of individual interviews with industry players. The study covers different technologies in various scales  including gasification, pyrolysis, solvolysis, dissolution, and enzymolysis. All technologies and  corresponding companies which include start-ups, SMEs, and large enterprises are presented  comprehensively. It further describes the technical details, the suitability of available technologies for  specific polymers and waste fractions, as well as the implementation of already existing pilot,  demonstration or even (semi-)commercial plants. Furthermore, the report systematically classifies and  describes all recent developments including partnerships and joint ventures of the last years. 

Dissolution 

Dissolution describes a solvent-based technology that is based on physical processes. Targeted  polymers from mixed plastic wastes can be dissolved in a suitable solvent while the chemical structure  of the polymer remains intact. Other plastic components (e.g. additives, pigments, fillers, non-targeted  polymers) remain undissolved and can be cleaned from the dissolved target polymer. Afterwards an  anti-solvent is added to initiate the precipitation of the target polymer. The polymer can be obtained  directly, in contrast to solvolysis, no polymerisation step is needed. Currently, the process reaches a  maximum capacity of 8,000 tonnes per annum whereby the majority of the nine identified technology  providers is located in Europe (four providers), followed by North America (three providers), China (one  provider), and the rest of the word (one provider). With three companies the majority of providers are  small enterprises followed by micro/start-up- (two companies), medium- (two companies), and a large (two  companies) enterprise which is represented by Shuye  Environmental Technology (Shantou,  China). 

Enzymolysis 

An alternative path represents enzymolysis, a technology based on biochemical processes utilising  different kinds of biocatalysts to depolymerise a polymer into its building units. Being in an early  development phase, this technology is available only at lab-scale. Currently, only one enzymolysis  technology provider was identified which is a small enterprise located in Europe. 

Solvolysis 

The solvent-based solvolysis describes a chemical process based on depolymerisation which can be  realised with different solvents. This process breaks down polymers (mainly PET) into their building units  (e.g. monomers, dimers, oligomers). After breakdown, the building units need to be cleaned from the  other plastic components (e.g. additives, pigments, fillers, non-targeted polymers). After cleaning, the  building units are polymerised to synthesise new polymers. With 24 companies fewer solvolysis  technology providers are on the market compared to pyrolysis also offering smaller capacities typically  between 550-8,7500 tonnes per annum. Of the identified solvolysis technology providers a majority are  located in Europe (14 providers) followed by North America (seven providers), Japan (two providers,  and China (one provider). With nine companies the majority of providers are mainly small enterprises  followed by large- (seven companies), medium- (five companies), and micro/start-up (two companies)  enterprises. Among the large enterprises, there are Aquafil (Arco, Trentino, Italy, Eastman Chemical  Company (Kingsport, TN, USA), IFP Energies Nouvelles (IFPEN) (Rueil-Malmaison, France),  International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) (Armonk, NY, USA), DuPont Teijin Films (Tokyo,  Japan), and Dow (Midland, MI, USA). 

Pyrolysis 

With pyrolysis, a thermochemical recycling process is available that converts or depolymerises mixed  plastic wastes (mainly polyolefins) and biomass into liquids, solids, and gases in presence of heat and  absence of oxygen. Obtained products range from for instance different fractions of liquids including  oils, diesel, naphtha, and monomers as well as syngas, char, to waxes. Depending on the obtained  products these can be utilised as renewable feedstocks for the production of new polymers. With 40,000  tonnes per annum, the second-largest capacity found in the report is realised with pyrolysis. The majority  of the 80 identified technology providers are located in Europe (42 providers) followed by North America  (21 providers), Rest of the world (11 providers), China (four providers), Cis (one provider), and Japan  (one provider). With 27 companies most providers are small enterprises followed by micro/start-up- and  medium- enterprises (both each 18 companies), and large enterprises (16 providers) such as Blue Alp  (Eindhoven, the Netherlands), Demont (Millesimo, Italy), INEOS Styrolution (Frankfurt, Germany), Neste  (Espoo, Finland), Österreichische Mineralölverwaltung (OMV) (Vienna, Austria), Repsol (Madrid,  Spain), Unipetrol (Prague, Czechia), VTT (Espoo, Finland), and Chevron Phillips (The Woodlands, TX,  USA). 

Gasification 

Another thermochemical process that is capable to convert mixed plastics waste and biomass in  presence of heat and oxygen into syngas and COis gasification. Overall, 12 gasification technology  providers were identified and currently the largest achieved capacity measure up to 200,000 tonnes per  annum with most providers located in North America (seven providers) followed by Europe (five  providers). The majority of the identified companies are medium sized (four companies) enterprises,  followed by small- (three companies), micro/start-up (two companies), and large enterprises (one  company). Eastman was the only identified large enterprise.

Evaluation of global capacities and the role of advanced recycling in Europe 

More than 340 planned as well as installed and operating plants were mapped worldwide providing a  total input capacity of 1,477 kt per annum. In Europe, there is already a considerable potential of know how and providers for chemical and physical recycling technologies which is reflected in the comparison  with the globally installed plants and capacities. From all installed chemical and physical recycling plants  worldwide more than 60 and therewith the majority is operating in Europe covering nearly one quarter  of the worldwide input capacity which ranks Europe at the top of the global comparison. Globally, the  production capacity of advanced recycling is 1,082 kt per annum with products ranging from polymers,  monomers, naphtha, Secondary Valuable Chemicals (SVC), and fuels & energy. Europe’s circular  strategy becomes evident by setting the product shares of polymers, monomers, naphtha, and SVC  from chemical and physical recycling into the global context. Here, Europe is capable to cover 36 % of  the installed global capacity. 

In the coming five years a strong growth of the market is expected in which the amount of installed  chemical and physical recycling plants will steadily grow. A first indicator are the announcements of the  technology providers for the construction of new plants. An analysis of these announcements shows  that the input capacity in Europe 2027 will more than triple by 2027 while globally the capacity will  double. However, the projection for Europe might change in dependence of additional political  measures, a such as the revision of relevant directives or the establishment of incentives and investment  programs. 

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