Green materials: PureCycle completes Ohio facility for recycling PP waste; Idemitsu produces ISCC-certified biobased styrene/PS in Malaysia

US recycler PureCycle Technologies Inc. says it has reached mechanical completion of its first polypropylene (PP) purification plant in Ironton, Ohio, and submitted documentation to Leidos Engineering, the site’s independent construction monitor, for formal certification of completion.

PureCycle prepared the final closure documentation consistent with the requirements set forth by Leidos and believes the information to be complete and sufficient. The Leidos certification is required to achieve key milestones in connection with PureCycle’s Ironton financings.

The Ironton Facility, once fully operational, is expected to produce 48,000 tonnes/year of Ultra-Pure Recycled (UPR) resin, making high-quality recycled PP plastic more accessible at scale. PureCycle uses an innovative technology to remove nearly all contaminants, colours, and odours from PP plastic waste.

The Ironton facility will now begin operational pre-start-up, safety review processes, and the march toward initial pellet production, which is currently anticipated to commence in the second quarter of 2023.

“2023 will continue to be an exciting year for PureCycle as we kick off operations at our flagship facility in Ironton. Now that construction is complete, we can begin our ramp-up plan and start producing UPR pellets,” said Dustin Olson, PureCycle’s CEO. “This is a transformative moment for PureCycle, for all of those that have supported us and invested in our Company, and for our goal of creating an ‘infinitely sustainable planet.’ We can’t wait to bring our sustainable, high-quality, no-compromise UPR resin to our customers and start to create a truly circular economy for plastics.”

PureCycle licenses the patented process for making high-quality recycled resin from The Procter & Gamble Company, whose scientists developed this technology.

Victor Aguilar, Chief Research, Development and Innovation Officer at The Procter & Gamble Company added, “We are very proud to see this technology commercialised. This is an important step toward making recycled materials more readily integrated into products and packaging and consistent with P&G’s interest in enabling more sustainable solutions for our industry. Thank you, PureCycle, for driving greater scale from our invention, and many thanks to our joint team of scientists who dedicated their time and expertise to bring this important project to fruition.”

In addition to the sustainability benefits, PureCycle’s first purification plant will provide the Ironton community with an influx of new jobs.

‍In other news, Idemitsu SM (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, located in Pasir Gudang, Johor, and Petrochemicals (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, subsidiaries of Tokyo-headquartered Idemitsu Kosan Co. Ltd, have successfully obtained the ISCC PLUS certification, an international certification system for sustainable products, for the production of styrene monomer (SM) and polystyrene (PS).

In addition to supplying biomass feedstocks from Idemitsu Kosan to ISM, the project aims to the supply chain for styrene-based biomass plastic in Southeast Asia by procuring various biomass feedstocks and selling biomass products in cooperation with the subsidiaries located in Singapore.

ISCC PLUS certification is an international system that manages and ensures the supply chain of products made from sustainable raw materials such as biomass and, allows to apply the mass balance method*3. Biomass naphtha, the raw material for biomass products, is manufactured from raw materials derived from renewable materials such as plants, and thus can reduce CO2 emissions compared to naphtha derived from petroleum.

Idemitsu Kosan will supply biomass naphtha-derived feedstocks to ISM to produce biomass SM based on the mass balance method under ISCC PLUS certification. Similarly, the adjacent PM will produce biomass PS from the biomass SM supplied by ISM. This will allow it to establish the supply chain of styrene-based biomass plastics from Japan to Malaysia.

To ensure the stable supply of styrene-based biomass products in Southeast Asia, ISM and PM will stably procure the various biomass feedstocks and manufacture/sell biomass products utilizing the marketing capabilities of Idemitsu International (Asia) Pte. Ltd. (Singapore), trading of petroleum and related products, and Idemitsu Chemicals Southeast Asia Pte. Ltd. (Singapore), sales of petrochemical products in the southeast area.

(PRA)

Subscribe to Get the Latest Updates from PRA  Please click here