Biotrend Energy to Use Honeywell Technology in Plastics Recycling Factory
Biotrend Energy will use Honeywell’s UpCycle Process Technology in its planned plastics recycling factory in Turkey. The facility will convert mixed waste plastics into recycled polymer feedstock (RPF) to further the development of a circular economy for plastics, the companies expect. When completed, it will become the first commercialised waste plastics recycling facility in Turkey using Honeywell’s UpCycle Process Technology.
The planned recycling plant is expected to have the capacity to transform 30,000 metric tons of mixed waste plastics into Honeywell Recycled Polymer Feedstock per year by utilising Honeywell’s UpCycle Process Technology. Honeywell UOP will provide related engineering and technical services, including startup, commissioning, and technical support services during the plant’s lifetime.
Currently, Biotrend is only able to recover a low percentage of mechanically recycled materials. Some types of plastic waste cannot be recycled mechanically due to certain process limitations caused by contamination, colours, and additives used in plastic production. Currently, the plastics that cannot be mechanically recycled are either converted into Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) or stored in landfills.
But chemical recycling, like that used in the Honeywell UpCycle Process Technology, can process a wider range of waste plastics, which Biotrend says supports the company’s efforts to increase recovery volumes of circular materials.
Honeywell’s UpCycle Process Technology utilises molecular conversion, pyrolysis, and contaminants management technology to convert waste plastic to RPF, which is then used to create new plastics. The UpCycle Process Technology expands the types of plastics that can be recycled to include waste plastic that would otherwise go unrecycled.
Molecular recycling has been seen as a pivotal tool for achieving circularity recently. In January, French President Emmanuel Macron and Eastman Board Chair and CEO Mark Costa announced Eastman’s plan to invest up to $1 billion in a material-to-material molecular recycling facility in France. This facility was to use Eastman’s polyester renewal technology to recycle more than 176,000 tons annually of hard-to-recycle plastic waste that is currently being incinerated.
Source: Environmental Leader
