Modern Technology Set to Revolutionize End-Of-Life Plastic Recycling

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The U.K.-based ReNew ELP has announced the launch of a new technology that would transform the way end-of-life plastics are recycled. The new patented Catalytic Hydrothermal Reactor (Cat-HTR) technology chemically recycles plastic waste into oil and other valuable chemicals. Developed by an Australian firm, the technology has successfully completed its test run at a pilot plant in Australia.

Richard Daley, ReNew ELP’s Managing Director noted that out of over 300 million tonnes of plastics produced every year, only 5% is currently recycled. Much of the remainder ends up in landfills or pollutes environment and waterways. The newly developed technology offers innovative solution to this problem, by promoting circular economy. The Cat-HR technology is unique from other thermal conversion processes in use today. It operates at much lower temperatures and generates less carbon footprint, thereby making it more efficient than pyrolysis or gasification, Daley noted.

The new technology uses water at extremely high pressure and high temperatures to break down a wide range of plastics including end-of-life plastics and used tyres into its original component molecules. These molecules are then rearranged in order to turn the waste plastic into valuable chemicals and stable synthetic oils.

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The construction of the first commercial site that employs the revolutionary Cat-HR technology is already underway at the Wilton International site in Teesside, North East England. Initially, the plant with operate with a single unit capable of recycling nearly 20,000 tonnes of end-of-life plastics per annum. Later on, it plans to add three more units, thus making the total processing capacity to 80,000 tonnes per annum. The plant is expected to come on stream by end of next year.