Mura Technology has opened a commercial-scale chemical recycling plant at Wilton International, Teesside, with its initial hydrocarbon products expected to be delivered in early 2024.
The plant will process flexible and rigid mixed plastics, including films, which are currently considered widely unrecyclable, and has capacity to produce 20,000 tonnes a year of recycled liquid hydrocarbon products, with scope to expand by more than three times.
Steve Mahon, chief executive, said: “Our HydroPRS process is unlocking a new market for plastic waste, creating value and keeping both plastic and carbon in circularity.
«The technology works alongside existing mechanical recycling to ensure no plastic types are considered ‘unrecyclable’ and require incineration or landfilling.
“With support from our partners, the Teesside site will be the first in Mura’s global roll-out, helping in the fight against the plastic pollution and global warming crises and acting as a launchpad for the one million tonnes of annual recycling capacity that we plan to have in operation and development in this decade.”
The process uses water under high pressure and high temperature to convert flexible and rigid plastics into feedstocks, the company said. This meant there was no limit to the number of times the same material could be recycled, providing a complementary process alongside traditional mechanical recycling,
Mura said independent lifecycle assessments at Teesside had shown the process provides an 80% carbon emissions saving by diverting unrecyclable plastic away from incineration.
Fuente: mrw.co.uk