Plastic Energy, Freepoint and TotalEnergies team up to advance US advanced recycling program

UK-based chemical recycling company Plastic Energy has entered into a strategic partnership with recycling technology provider Freepoint Eco Systems and oil and gas company Total Energies
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Under the agreement, Plastic Energy and Freepoint Eco-Systems will build a state-of-the-art recycling plant in Texas based on patented technology developed by Plastic Energy
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A developer of advanced recycling systems, Connecticut-based Freepoint specializes in recycling waste plastics that would otherwise end up in landfills using proven pyrolysis technology

"The Texas project will reduce the need for fossil feedstocks, which will make the economy more sustainable and the planet healthier," said Jeff McMahon, managing director of Freepoint
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At the new facility, 33,000 tons of post-consumer plastic waste will be processed annually into a recycled feedstock called Tacoil, which Total Energies will convert into virgin-quality polymer at its production unit in Texas , even for food-grade packaging applications
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Tacoil is produced using a thermal anaerobic conversion process developed by Plastics Energy over the past 10 years
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The technology enables previously unrecyclable plastics to be efficiently diverted from landfills to incinerators and instead recycled as feedstocks that can be used in petrochemical plants to make ethylene and propylene
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This process heats plastic waste in the absence of oxygen until it melts and the polymer molecules break down into hydrocarbon vapors
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Condensable gases are converted into hydrocarbon products, while non-condensable gases are collected separately and burned to process energy
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For every ton of post-consumer plastic waste processed, 850 liters of chemical feedstock Tacoil are produced
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The Texas plant is expected to be operational by mid-2024
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Plastic Energy currently has two continuously operating chemical recycling plants in Spain, but the Texas project is its first in the United States
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Plastic Energy founder and chief executive Carlos Monreal said it was an area with "huge potential for a premium plastic-to-plastic recycling market
.
" "Working with Freepoint and TotalEnergies, we will be able to recycle more plastic and reduce the consumption of natural resources, which benefits the circular economy
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However, the current project is not the first for Plastic Energy to collaborate with Total Energies: the two companies announced in September 2020 that they had formed a joint venture to build an annual capacity building on Total Energies’ zero crude oil platform in France For a 15,000-ton plastic waste conversion facility
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The project is expected to be operational in early 2023
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Valérie Goff, Senior Vice President for Polymers at TotalEnergies, said: "This strategic partnership in the United States is an important step in the development of advanced recycling of plastic waste globally, following the completion of the first advanced recycling plant in France to use plastic energy
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"This will help meet the challenges of a circular economy and achieve our goal of producing 30% recycled and renewable polymers by 2030.

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