The world’s first commercial scale plant that can transform mixed plastic waste into “high-quality aromatic chemicals” is being built at Chemical Park Delfzijl, the Netherlands.
The project, which is being developed by
Dutch circular chemistry business BioBTX will use the company’s proprietary Integrated Catalytic Cracking Process (ICCP). This technology allows for the conversion of mixed plastic waste, that would otherwise be incinerated or put into landfill, into aromatic oil consisting of benzene, toluene and xylene (BTX). These materials are used as building blocks in the manufacture of products such as coatings, pharmaceuticals and performance materials.
The facility is expected recycle some 20,000 tonnes of waste and produce 10,000 tonnes of renewable aromatic oil, along with 8000 tonnes of sustainable by-products each year. The company says that compared with conventional, fossil-based BTX production, the process is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 70 to 80 percent. The new facility will also lead to the creation of 35 new jobs.
The development of the new facility is the culmination of a project that started in 2012 and has been through lab, pilot and now commercial execution. Ton Vries, co-founder and CEO of BioBTX said: “Reaching this key milestone in the development of BioBTX marks an important step in our journey towards our mission of making circular chemistry possible.”
The project is supported by specialist polymer company Covestro, which became a shareholder and strategic partner in BioBTX during 2024. The partnership also includes two joint development agreements, where Covestro is researching the possibility of recycling its own products as well as contributing technical know-how in the area of digitisation to improve plant performance.
The two companies, which have been collaborating for some six years, are also part of the EU-funded Circular Foam Project, which is focused on the recycling of rigid polyurethane foam using pyrolysis.
When Covestro announced that it had become a shareholder in BioBTX, Thorsten Dreier, CTO of Covestro commented: “Chemical recycling can make a significant difference contributing to closing the loop and the BioBTX ICCP technology is a promising way of using waste to recover raw materials that we use in production.”
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