Green news: Polykemi grows capacity for recycled materials; Covation’s plant for bioTHF and bioPTMEG reaches completion
Over the past two years, Polykemi and Rondo Plast have invested close to SEK25 million (EUR2.3 million) to increase production capacity by approximately 7,500 tonnes/year of recycled material. These are production volumes that are rare in both Sweden and Europe.
In 2024, Polykemi and Rondo Plast purchased a plastics recycling machine from Austrian machinery maker Erema with a capacity of 5,000 tonnes/year. In March 2026, production was expanded with a ReadyMac unit, adding a capacity of 2,500 tonnes/year.
“With the ReadyMac, we manage a larger part of the process and can handle recycled plastic at an earlier stage than before. The investment allows us to add process stabilisers to the material during upgrading and improve quality assurance,” says Magnus Andersson, Production Manager at Polykemi Group.
Until now, the focus for PCR (post-consumer recycled) material has been on PP and PE. With these investments, Polykemi and Rondo Plast can now also process PCR in PC, ABS, PS and PA.
“Engineering plastics from PCR have previously not been clean enough. Thanks to laser filters that remove contamination down to 100 µm, we can now handle this upgrading process ourselves. This means we can expand our product portfolio and now offer engineering materials as recycled compounds as well,” says Viktor Bladh, Department Manager at Rondo Plast.
"We gain control over a larger part of the process, our customers get more reliable material supply, and we reduce the number of transports during the refinement process. Very few others in Europe can match the quality and volume we are now able to produce," says Patrik Lindqvist.
Meanwhile in other news, Covation Biomaterials LLC, a US-based biomaterials company founded in 2022, has announced that its first commercial plant for the C4 product platform, including bioTHF and bio-based polytetramethylene ether glycol (PTMEG), achieved mechanical completion in April 2026. In addition, CovationBio now officially launches the Xatryx brand for the portfolio of new, non-food, bioPTMEG products to be produced at the plant.
The C4 facility is located in Qidong, Jiangsu Province, China. It utilises what it says is a “new-to-the-world” process technology developed by CovationBio. With a total investment of RMB10 billion, the plant is planned in three phases, targeting a future total capacity of 500,000 tonnes/year of bio-based materials. The first phase, which is now mechanically complete, has a 50,000-tonne/year commercial production capacity for both bioTHF and bioPTMEG. Commercial production is expected to begin in the second half of 2026.
As a second-generation bio-based material, Xatryx bioPTMEG serves as a drop-in replacement to fossil-based PTMEG, helping customers reduce their reliance on non-renewable materials.
Key sustainability benefits of Xatryx bioPTMEG include:
- Substantial reduction of greenhouse gas emissions compared to fossil-based incumbents;
- Bio-based product made from annually renewable resources;-2nd generation bio-based feedstocks, such as corncobs, which do not compete with primary food sources;
- Reduced reliance on non-renewable fossil fuels;
- Drop-in performance to allow downstream customers to switch to bio-based raw materials without process changes.
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