Biotrend Energy to build advanced recycling plant with Honeywell technology

Honeywell UOP, a division of Charlotte, North Carolina-based Honeywell, says Biotrend Energy has signed equipment supply, production license and warranty agreements to build Turkey’s first commercialized advanced plastic recycling plant using Honeywell UOP UpCycle Process Technology.

Two parallel 30,000 metric ton units of modular design will be built in the Izmir region of Turkey and are expected to start up in 2025, according to a news release from Honeywell. The plant is expected to be able to transform 60,000 metric tons of mixed plastics into recycled plastic feedstock, or RPF, annually, twice the amount originally projected when the project was first announced in September 2022. Biotrend Energy will provide the feedstock for the plant, and Honeywell UOP will provide related engineering and technical services, including startup, commissioning and technical support services during the plant’s lifetime.

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“There is an increasing demand for recycled plastic products as a result of the circular economy commitments made by the world's leading companies, and Honeywell UOP UpCycle Process Technology can support Biotrend’s efforts to increase recovery volumes of circular materials,” says Salih Tuncer Mutlucan, member of the board of directors of Biotrend Çevre ve Enerji Yatırımları A.Ş.

Currently, Biotrend Energy can recover a low percentage of mechanically recycled materials. Moreover, some types of plastic cannot be recycled mechanically in light of certain process limitations caused by contamination, colors and additives used in plastic production, Honeywell says. Currently, the plastics that cannot be mechanically recycled are either converted into refuse-derived fuel (RDF) or landfills.

“Honeywell has the proven technology to help shape the energy transition, and our collaboration with Biotrend will dramatically increase the amount of plastic that can be recycled in Turkey,” Uygar Doyuran, Honeywell president of Turkey, Israel and Central Asia, says. “Together, Honeywell and Biotrend can help enable a circular economy for plastics by converting mixed waste plastics into recycled polymer feedstock.”

He adds, “Honeywell’s participation as an investor in this project with Biotrend demonstrates how much we trust our technology. The high performance of our UpCycle Technology gives us great confidence in the success of this collaboration.”

Biotrend Energy processes 4.5 million tons of waste per year across its facilities (including prelicensed plants) within Turkey. The company provides waste transfer, recycling, landfill, waste to energy and production of organic fertilizer (compost) and RDF.

UpCycle Process Technology from Des Plaines, Illinois-based Honeywell UOP uses molecular conversion, pyrolysis and contaminants management technology to convert end-of-life plastic into RPF, which is then used to create new plastics. UpCycle Process Technology expands the types of plastics that can be recycled to include colored, flexible, multilayered packaging and polystyrene, the company says.

Honeywell’s UpCycle Process Technology was created within Honeywell’s Sustainable Technology Solutions business, which is part of Honeywell UOP. The company started looking into advanced recycling in 2019 in response to growing demand to increase plastics recycling, Carrie Eppelheimer, chief commercial officer at Honeywell Sustainable Technology Solutions, previously told Recycling Today.

The process is based on pyrolysis, which uses heat in the absence of oxygen to break down polymers. It produces 77 percent less CO2 emissions than incineration or landfilling, and the resulting product can be used in the production of new plastics at a 25 percent blend rate, Eppleheimer has said.

According to the company, its technology produces “high-quality recycled polymer feedstock” that “needs less hydrotreating or preprocessing, resulting in higher blend limits and greater recycled plastic production while displacing fossil feedstock and preventing conventional waste handling.”