Expansions: APK acquires pilot plant in Frankfurt for recycling tech; PTTGC selects Ohio site for recycling plant

Swiss firm Clariant’s German subsidiary in Frankfurt and APK AG in Merseburg, Germany, have reached an agreement on the sale of the former Clariant pilot plant. Following conversion of the plant to accommodate technological modifications, it will be operated by the newly founded APK Newcycling Competence Center, which will focus on recycling. At its site in Merseburg, APK is operating a worldwide pilot plant, where the industrialisation of its Newcycling technology has already been achieved. Planning is currently underway for additional plants.

APK adds that the new German plant is a decisive step towards extending its development capacities, allowing expansion of its portfolio of plastics recycling technologies to include additional material flows and target polymers while at the same time facilitating the development of customised solutions for and with its partners.

“The pilot plant, a long-standing chemical industry site in Frankfurt/Höchst, will form the heart of our ongoing development work. We will launch operations by the end of 2022 and be able to offer our customers and investors a wide range of services in the area of research and development,” states Hagen Hanel, Director of Technology and Science at APK AG. “To accomplish this, we are already now, in the first phase, creating new interesting and challenging jobs”.

“From linear to circular – the future of the multi-purpose pilot plant in Frankfurt lies in the circular economy,” adds Klaus Wohnig, APK AG’s CEO. “At a site where once pigments and additives for plastics were developed, technologies are now being created that are targeted at removing precisely these from plastic waste, making it possible to create new products of a quality, that cannot be reached with mechanical recycling. With this pilot plant, located in the heart of Germany and Europe, along with our headquarters in central Germany’s “chemical triangle”, APK AG is laying the foundation for ongoing international expansion.”

Meanwhile in other news, Thailand-based PTT Global Chemical Public’s subsidiary in the US, PTTGC America (GCA) has decided to locate a plastic recycling facility in central Ohio, US. GCA says it has signed a nonbinding memorandum of understanding (MOU) to locate what it calls “a new recycling complex” in a business park operated by the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio (SWACO), based in Grove City, near Columbus.

Thailand’s largest integrated petrochemical and refining business in Asia-Pacific, PTTGC plans to construct and operate a manufacturing plant of recycled plastics in Grove City with a final investment decision to be made by the end of 2022. GCA also has signed a separate MOU with Cincinnati-based waste and recycling firm Rumpke regarding scrap feedstock for the facility.

“Aligned with the Paris Agreement, GC Group aims to reduce current CO2 emissions by 20% by 2030 on our journey toward achieving net zero by 2050,” said GCA CEO Panod Awaiwanond. “This project illustrates our commitment to fight climate change and contribute to a circular economy. It also reaffirms our commitment to the United States and the state of Ohio.”

GCA describes the complex as an enclosed operation that will make recycled PE and PET into products. The facility will be located in SWACO’s Green Economy Business Park, which is being developed to use research, technology and manufacturing “to bring together the sustainable materials management supply chain.”

“We are pleased that PTTGCA has selected Ohio for their project,” says Joe Lombardi, SWACO executive director. “As SWACO continues to advance a more circular economy, we are constantly looking for ways in which materials from the local waste stream can be used to create economic development opportunities, supply sustainable businesses with materials and create new products for consumers.”

PTTGC is also building an ethane cracker at a site in Mead Township along the Ohio River in Belmont County, capable of producing ethylene and its derivative with 1.5 million tonnes/year. It has also signed a long-term ethane feedstock agreement with Range Resources – Appalachia to provide 15,000 barrels/day of ethane as feedstock for the proposed complex.

(PRA)

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