Green tie-ups: Landbell/PureCycle to advance PP recycling in Europe; VTT/Lut University research conversion of wood-based CO2 emissions into plastics raw materials

Landbell Group, a global operator of over 40 producer responsibility organisations (PROs) and a provider of closed-loop recycling solutions, and PureCycle Technologies Inc, a company focused on providing a sustainable solution for purifying PP, have announced a collaboration to prioritise and expand the upcycling of PP waste into high-purity, recycled PP that can be used in high-value and demanding applications across Europe.

In January 2024, Landbell and PureCycle Belgium began collaborating to advance the recycling of PP waste in Europe. As part of this collaboration, Landbell Group will use its expertise in the collection, sorting and processing of plastics across several European countries.

Landbell will supply the PP waste from its household collections as feedstock for PureCycle’s first European PP recycling plant in Antwerp, Belgium, with an expected capacity of 59,000 tonnes/year once constructed and operating.

PureCycle Belgium will be using its innovative form of dissolution recycling and experience from PureCycle’s flagship plant in Ironton, Ohio, US, which is expected to have a capacity of 48,600 tonnes/year once fully operational.

PureCycle says it transforms PP plastic into a versatile, replenishable resource through a purification process, involving multiple steps. The result is a PP-recyclate that can serve as a drop-in replacement to virgin PP. Its PureFive recyclate can be recycled and reused multiple times and is already being used in commercial applications in the US.

Through this partnership with PureCycle, Landbell adds it will ensure that the thermoplastic polymer which is widely used in the packaging industry, from food and beverage packaging to industrial and consumer goods packaging, is redirected towards high quality recycling.

Uwe Echteler, COO of Landbell Group said, “By combining the innovative and robust approaches of PureCycle Technologies and Landbell Group in Europe, we will drive higher recycling rates and high-quality recycled PP, empowering producers to close the loop and to fulfill their new obligations from the Packaging & Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR).”

In other news VTT Technical research centre of Finland and LUT University have completed a three-year research project on carbon capture and utilisation. The project investigated different technologies for producing renewable plastic raw materials from carbon dioxide and green hydrogen. Renewable energy, hydrogen economy and forest industry’s biogenic carbon dioxide emissions present significant opportunities for new sustainable industries.

The Forest CUMP research project of VTT and LUT University investigated how biogenic carbon dioxide from forest industry and waste incineration can be captured and converted into high-value-added products, such as PP and PE. They are raw materials for the most common types of plastics used in everyday life, and their production currently relies mainly on fossil raw materials. 

"We investigated through pilot activities and modelling, how the biogenic carbon dioxide recovery chain can be adapted to existing petrochemical plants and the production of key basic plastics. For rapid and significant replacement of fossil feedstocks with renewable ones, technologies need to be adapted to the currently existing production facilities," says Juha Lehtonen,  Research Professor at VTT.

For example, the equipment used to separate hydrocarbons is an expensive long-term investment. Therefore, it makes sense to adapt renewable raw material processes to the currently available industrial equipment. 

"Our research showed that the low-temperature Fischer-Tropsch process is a technically and economically promising alternative for the production of renewable polymers such as polyethylene and polypropylene. We can use Fischer-Tropsch naphtha directly in existing petrochemical processes as a feedstock for the above-mentioned plastics without major additional investments into current petrochemical units (e.g. distillation and separation processes or steam cracker). Producing the necessary hydrocarbons through alternative process routes such as methanol or the high-temperature Fischer-Tropsch process would require expensive investments in production facilities," Lehtonen explains. 

Finland has significant biogenic carbon dioxide reserves that can be used to replace fossil-based carbon feedstocks. Finland's potential is based on large, relatively easily exploitable individual sources of bio-based carbon dioxide, such as forest industry production facilities. These types of renewable carbon dioxide sources are rarely found in Europe outside the Nordic countries. 

“The capture of wood-based carbon dioxide offers a significant opportunity for Finland to build new industrial value chains while simultaneously reducing the use of fossil raw materials. The experimental work and piloting conducted within the Forest CUMP project provide valuable insights into the potential of carbon dioxide as a raw material for plastics,” says Kaija Pehu-Lehtonen, the project manager of Metsä Group’s carbon capture initiative.

In addition to a stable, large-scale, and year-round supply of bio-based carbon dioxide, Finland's energy and hydrogen infrastructure is well-positioned to support the growing use of renewable energy sources and hydrogen. As we move away from fossil hydrocarbon products, one of the main challenges will be securing an adequate supply of green hydrogen. Going forward, Finland's energy infrastructure provides good potential for large-scale green hydrogen production through water electrolysis using renewable energy. 

According to research by VTT, converting 10 million tonnes of biogenic carbon dioxide into renewable products would require approximately 60 TWh of renewable electricity (while Finland’s annual electricity consumption is around 85 TWh). For example, processing 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide and 1 million tonnes of hydrogen would yield approximately 3 million tonnes of diesel fuel, equivalent to Finland’s total annual consumption.

Finland has about 30 Mt/a of large bio-based CO₂ sources (over 0.1 Mt/a each), meaning the country already has the necessary raw materials and infrastructure for industrial-scale production.

Instead of focusing on fuels, the Forest CUMP project explored the possibility of capturing bio-based carbon dioxide in long-lasting polymer products. 
 
The Forest CUMP project brought together business partners and researchers to tackle major future challenges. Borealis, a provider of polyolefin solutions, is one of the companies participating in the project. Forest CUMP is part of Borealis' SPIRIT programme, which promotes the green transition of the plastics industry. 

“This significant development project supports the transition to renewable solutions in the plastics industry. In our vision, bio-based carbon can be bound into long-lasting plastic products such as coatings and insulations for electrical cables, various pipe applications, or recyclable packaging products. The route identified in the research makes this technically feasible, but widespread commercial use still requires both increased demand for renewable solutions and improvements in hydrogen economy technologie,” says Ismo Savallampi, the manager responsible for renewable feedstock research projects at Borealis. 

Summary of the process studied in the Forest CUMP project:

The Forest CUMP project, funded by Business Finland, is part of the Business Finland Veturi ecosystem, which develops various solutions towards sustainable development and national carbon neutrality together with major Finnish companies. The project started in August 2022 and ended in March 2025. The project involves the leading companies Borealis, Neste and ABB, as well as Metsä Spring, Kemira, Vantaa Energy, Stora Enso, Ekotuhka Oy, Carbonreuse Finland, Fortum Waste Solutions Oy and Essity. In addition to VTT, LUT University is a research partner.

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