Communicator

Alterra closes investment round with the expectation to accelerate the commercialisation of its plastics pyrolysis technology

Investors Infinity Recycling, Chevron Phillips Chemical, LyondellBasell, and Neste, along with long-term support from Potenza Capital, have successfully closed their latest round of equity funding in Alterra Energy (formerly Vadxx Energy). This investment round is expected to accelerate the commercialization of Alterra’s plastics pyrolysis technology, designed to transform discarded plastic into valuable raw materials.

Alterra's advanced recycling technology has been modeled on ppPLUS and the mass balance of the company's demo plant in Akron has been created. One main product the technology is producing is plastics pyoil, which may be fractionnated to separate naphtha, which can be used as a feedstock returned to the cracker to produce ethylene among other products. The feedstock the technology is accepting is mostly clean polyolefin waste.

Source: Alterra, 22^nd Oct 2024 & portfolio planning PLUS.

#alterra  #lyondellbasell  #neste  #cpchem  #pyrolysis  #plasticwaste  #advancedrecycling  #molecularrecycling  #chemicalrecycling  #pyoil  #steamcracking  #naphtha  #ethylene  #polyethylene  

The spinoff from the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands said in a statement that ‘achieving a positive cash flow from its advanced polyester recycling technology will take too long’, sustainable Plastics reports.

Ioniqa has been operating a demonstration facility at Brightlands Chemelot Campus in Geleen, the Netherlands , since summer 2019. The demo plant, with a capacity of 10,000 tonnes a year, produces recycled PET for food-contact applications.

This January, the company received funding from Infinity Recycling’s Circular Plastics Fund to help scale up and bring its technology to market, including broadening its feedstock to include polyester fibres.

However, ten months in, Ioniqa said large-scale deployment of its PET depolymerisation technology has proven ‘economically unfeasible’ under current market conditions and the company’s current set-up.

It cited low cost of virgin plastics, a plastics recycling chain still in development, and too-far-out-into-the future implementation of recycling quotas mandates as factors for its poor financial position.

With its strategic licencing partner Koch Technology Solutions, a UK-based  technology licensing business with roots in DuPont, the partners expected to sell licences will on an estimated 50,000-plus tonnes scale...

The company’s Denua technology is a proprietary glycolysis process that depolymerises all types and colours of PET waste into its original monomers. Its feedstock is mostly based on low-end PET.

As an investor, if you had asked portfolio planning PLUS, we would have told you about the financial risk by developing an integrated economic model on our PAAS system.

#chemicalrecycling  #plasticrecycling  #pet  #depolymerisation 

In its 2023 sustainability report, published in March, Shell is stating that:

“In 2023 we concluded that the scale of our ambition to turn 1m tonnes of plastic waste a year into pyrolysis oil by 2025 is unfeasible.”

The report justifies this step back from the previous commitment due to changing market conditions:
 
“While Shell sees customer demand for circular chemicals, the pace of growth globally is less than expected due to lack of available feedstock, slow technology development and regulatory uncertainty.”

On its website, Shell advocates for chemical recycling (photo) with the following statement:

“Chemical recycling through pyrolysis, where hard-to-recycle plastic waste like snack bags, ready meals, or plastic film, that are not suitable for mechanical recycling, are turned into pyrolysis oil, a liquid that replaces hydrocarbons to produce circular chemicals.”

Shell has started its strategy to build up chemical recycling capaciities by signing a strategic supply agreement with Nexus Fuels (now Nexus Circular) back in 2019. Nexus operates a 'pilot' Nexus Pyrolysis plant with a rated capacity of 50 tonnes per day at its production site in Atlanta .

Since that date, Shell has successively invested in Dutch  company BlueAlp, signed pyrolysis oil supply agreements with Pryme, another Dutch  company, and with Finnish  company Lamor in Europe, with Environmental Solutions Asia in Singapore , and with Freepoint Eco-Systems in the U.S.A. , invested in two pyrolysis oil upgraders at its Mordijk site in The Netherlands   and signed a LOU with Dialog Group Berhad in Malaysia  and a MOU with the European branch of Agilyx in Norway  for the development of chemical recycling plants.

This step back from the pledge to develop chemical recycling follows on the previous announcement that Shell is pulling out of planned e-SAF project in Sweden.

#chemicalrecycling  #advancedrecycling  #molecularrecycling  #mechanicalrecycling  #plasticwaste  #pyoil  #pyrolysisoil  #plasticspyoil 

Viridor has assumed full ownership of Quantafuel as the Oslo Stock Exchange delisted Quantafuel AS’ shares from Euronext Growth on 7th February.

Viridor, 8th Feb 2024.

#pyrolysis  #plasticwaste  #recycling  #chemicalrecycling 

Circular Polymer Resources and AmSpec Group to develop a process to test and certify the composition and quality of plastic waste used in chemical recycling, Beatriz Santos from Sustainable Plastics reports on Feb 7^th.

Notable, the article mentions that:

"Pyrolysis oil must be diluted with fossil-derived oils or treated to improve its quality to bring it ‘on-specification’ for steam cracking. This diminishes the yield of recycled plastic from pyrolysis or requires energy intensive processes, respectively..."

#chemicalrecycling  #molecularrecycling  #advancedrecycling  #massbalance  #circularpolymer  #pyrolysis 

The description of the Plastic Pyrolysis Process has been significantly augmented with a lot of practical information details.
#chemicalrecycling  #advancedrecycling  #circularity  #circulareconomy  #plasticwaste  #recycling