Recycling
Recycling is the process of converting industrial and post-consumer waste into new materials and objects, so that the value of products and materials in circulation is utilized in the best way possible.
Approved project proposal
Recycling of hard recyclable plastic waste. Under this theme, specific issues within the subject will be addressed. The proposal was submitted by the company Quantafuel A/S.
The project seeks to uncover how hard recyclable plastic waste can be recycled.
There is currently a strong focus on how circular economy can be implemented and at the same time become a good business for the entire value chain in the plastics industry. We have come a long way with well-defined industrial fractions, that can be reused to some extent, but what do we do with the rest? What do we do with undefined household waste containing mixed plastic fractions?
Mixed plastic fractions require a lot of processing to get it back to pure raw materials, if at all possible, and if the resources needed are too big, these fractions are seen at the bottom of the waste hierarchy and end up at incineration plants or landfills.
The company Quantafuel has developed a process, where the plastic is depolymerized and converted into 3 different fractions:
- Naphta, which can be used in the chemical industry – including production of new plastic.
- Diesel oil, which can be used in the oil industry as an additive either as LOW carbon fuel or for upgrading other oil products.
- Heavy oil, which can be used in the oil industry – among others.
Characteristic of all the products is that their LCA provides significant CO2 savings, up to 90%, compared to conventional products.
There is still an uncertainty as to how large quantities of certain types of polymers, Quantafuels plants can handle, and this is sought to be uncovered within this project, where mini experiments with mixed plastic fractions will be conducted.
DMN members can read publications about the project in Danish here >
For further information, please contact:
- Bente Nedergaard Christensen
- Polymer Specialist - Project Manager
- B.Sc. Chem. Eng., B.Sc. in Lab. Tech.
