LyondebellBasell (LYB) has laid the foundation stone for its industrial-scale chemical recycling plant in Wesseling, Germany. The ceremony took place today in the presence of Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The facility is expected to have an annual capacity of 50,000 tonnes and is designed to recycle the amount of plastic packaging waste generated by over 1.2 million German citizens per year. Construction is planned to be completed by the end of 2025 with start up expected in 2026.
The US-based company is investing a three-digit million euro sum in Wesseling.
“The chemical company LyondellBasell could have invested anywhere,” Scholz said. “But it chose Germany: out of confidence that the location has a good future. This is how we add a chapter to the history of our chemical industry. One that points to the future!”
The investment comes as Germany’s chemical industry is facing an unprecedented crisis driven by high energy and raw material costs as well as increased international competition.
“Innovations such as those from LyondellBasell are important for the modernisation and transformation of Germany as a chemical location and are also an important step towards a circular economy,” sources from German government circles told Sustainable Plastics.
The German chemical and plastic industries have been asking the government for support to avoid job cuts and plant closures.
Germany in favour of mass balance
Ahead of today’s ceremony, sources told Sustainable Plastics that the German government has argued with the European Commission in favour of a ‘pragmatic approach’ to the use of recyclate quotas for single-use beverage bottles. The statement hints at Germany’s favourable position towards recognition of mass balance, and therefore chemical recycling, in allocating recycled content in the Single Use Plastics Directive.
Sources also revealed that the German government plans to implement this ‘pragmatic approach’ in its National Circular Economy Strategy, due to be adopted this year.
MoReTec technology
LYB says the new plant will be the first commercial scale, single-train advanced recycling plant to convert post-consumer plastic waste into feedstock for production of new plastic materials that can be ran at net zero greenhouse gas emissions.
It will use the company’s proprietary MoReTec technology which produces pyrolysis oil and pyrolysis gas. Unlike most pyrolysis processes, MoReTec technology enables the pyrolysis gas to be recovered rather than consumed as fuel, increasing the yield of the pyrolysis process and displacing fossil-based feedstocks, which lowers direct CO2 emissions.
In addition, LYB’s proprietary catalyst technology lowers the process temperature and reduces energy. With lower energy consumption, the process can be powered by electricity, including electricity from renewable sources.
The Wesseling project has received €40 million in funds from the EU Innovation Fund.
“With investments like these, we are creating solutions and addressing rising demand for more sustainable products from our customers and society,” said LYB CEO Peter Vanacker. “The new facility has the potential to turn back hard to recycle, processed mixed plastic waste of more than 1.2 million German citizens into valuable raw materials to make new products. And this is only the first unit that we are building, we are already working on our future MoReTec plants,” he added.
Source: sustainableplastics.com
