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The prospect of plastic chemical recycling is promising, attracting chemical companies to compete for layout

 Last Update: 2021-09-18
 Source: Internet
 Author: User

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[ Focus on Chemical Machinery and Equipment Network ] According to statistics, about 4.
8-12.
7 million tons of plastic are discharged into the ocean every year around the world, and spread to all parts of the world along with ocean currents
.
In the face of this global pollution crisis, the development of new methods to achieve plastic recycling and upgrading has become a current research hotspot
.

Chemical machinery and equipment network hotspots pay attention to chemical machinery and equipment

Compared with traditional physical plastic recycling, one of the important advantages of chemical recycling is that it can obtain the quality of the original polymer and a higher plastic recycling rate
.
Physical recycling grinds waste plastics and mixes them with new plastics, causing degradation of the plastics in the process
.
The use of advanced chemical recycling technology can transform difficult-to-recycle plastic products into raw materials with original quality at the molecular level , which can be used to produce various valuable new products
.

plastic products

　　At present, chemical recycling is coming fiercely, and it is becoming more and more popular among chemical companies and even auto brand manufacturers.
Many companies are investing in expansion or recycling plants one after another
.
Chemical recycling is expected to turn the tide in the flood of waste plastics, turning hundreds of millions of tons of "white garbage" into treasure
.

　　LG Chem

　　Chemical recycling of MMA to achieve commercial production of ABS

　　Recently, LG Chem and Veolia, a South Korean recycling manufacturer, signed an agreement to reach a strategic partnership to jointly produce transparent acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), a high-value-added synthetic resin that uses chemical recycling to produce raw materials
.
Veolia has been specialized in recycling MMA (methyl methacrylate) for a long time.
MMA is the core raw material of transparent ABS
.
According to the agreement, LG Chem can realize the commercial production of low-carbon and transparent ABS through chemical recycling of MMA.
At the same time, it can also actively carry out R&D cooperation with Veolia to conduct process technology improvement and research and development to improve the quality of recycled MMA
.

　　Mitsubishi Chemical

　　The initial processing capacity of the new plant will be 20,000 tons of waste plastics per year

　　In June of this year, Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (MCC) and Mura Technology, a British company, signed a licensing contract for the use of plastic waste to produce chemical products and fuel raw materials (HydroPRS™)
.
In August, Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation announced that it had made a final investment decision for its Hydro-PRT (hydrothermal plastic recycling technology) project in Japan, which will be built at Mitsubishi Chemical's Ibaraki plant
.
The construction of the new plant is expected to be completed in 2023, and the initial processing capacity will be 20,000 tons of plastic waste per year
.
Compared with the traditional direct thermal decomposition technology, HydroPRS™ can obtain recycled synthetic oil of the same quality as petroleum-derived raw materials (can be put into existing equipment without pretreatment) with a high yield
.

　　SK Comprehensive Chemistry

　　The new chemical recycling plant is expected to recycle 184,000 tons of plastic each year

　　SK General Chemicals signed an agreement with the Ulsan City Government of South Korea in July.
SK plans to invest 600 billion won (approximately 3.
4 billion yuan) to build a chemical recycling plant in Ulsan, South Korea
.
The plant covers an area of about 160,000 square meters and will be completed in 2025.
After completion, it can recycle 184,000 tons of plastic waste each year
.
SK General Chemical said that from the perspective of investment scale, this will be a larger plastic recycling project in South Korea
.

　　Shell

　　It is estimated that more than 30,000 tons of waste plastics will be converted into cracking raw materials every year

　　Shell announced that it will build two waste plastic chemical recycling plants in the Netherlands before 2023 to produce pyrolysis oil feedstock for its steam crackers in Moerdijk, Netherlands and Rhein, Germany
.
Shell expects that the two chemical recycling plants for waste plastics will convert more than 30,000 tons of waste plastics per year into cracking raw materials
.
It is reported that the two factories will be jointly constructed by Shell Ventures, a strategic investment subsidiary of Shell, and BlueAlp, a plastic waste recycling company
.
The two parties will also establish a joint venture company
.
Among them, the plastic chemical recycling technology is provided by BlueAlp, which can decompose waste plastics into pyrolysis oil and use it to produce sustainable chemicals
.

　　Sumitomo Chemical

　　Chemically recycled PMMA can be used in auto parts manufacturing

　　At present, Sumitomo Chemical has decided to build a chemical recovery test facility for acrylic resin (PMMA) at the Ehime Plant in Niihama City, Ehime Prefecture, Japan
.
The new production line is scheduled to start pilot testing in the fall of 2022, and samples will be provided in 2023
.
At the same time as the project, Sumitomo Chemical will develop a PMMA recycling system, from collecting used acrylic resin to recycling and reprocessing into products, in order to realize the commercialization of chemical recycling of PMMA as soon as possible
.
In terms of acrylic resin chemical recycling, the company has been cooperating with JSW Co.
, Ltd.
to integrate and optimize the continuous plastic decomposition technology of the JSW twin-screw extruder with Sumitomo Chemical's accumulated expertise in MMA monomer and acrylic resin over the years
.

Extruder

　　In addition, there are also many technical teams in our country dedicated to researching the chemical recycling technology of plastics
.

　　· The team of Huang Zheng, a researcher at the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, used an iridium complex and iron oxide composite catalyst to convert polyethylene into liquid alkanes with high selectivity
.

　　· Peking University professor Li Zichen’s team designed a series of benzothiocaprolactone monomers.
Under the catalysis of organic bases, semi-crystalline polyesters with excellent mechanical properties can be obtained.
The materials can be directly heated (200℃) for recycling.
The volume recovery rate is close to quantitative (>98%)
.

　　· Duan Haohong's research group, associate professor of the Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, published a paper in Nature-Communication on August 18th.
They used abundant metal-based catalysts to upgrade the common polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic Converted into higher-value chemical materials and hydrogen fuel
.

　　Nowadays, in the context of dual carbon goals, circular economy has also become the future development direction of the plastics industry, and the prospects for plastic chemical recycling are considerable
.
According to data research by McKinsey Consulting, by 2030, the global recycling rate of plastics is expected to increase to 50%
.
The proportion of chemical recycling may rise to about 17%, which is equivalent to recycling about 74 million tons of waste plastic
.

　　Note: This article is compiled and released by Plastic Machinery Network ( data sources: China Science News, Adsale Plastics Network, New Observation of Waste Plastics, Mitsubishi Chemical, Hengyu Environmental Protection

　　Original title: The prospect of plastic chemical recycling is promising, attracting chemical companies to compete for layout

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