Companies partner to standardize build of chemical recycling plants

Petrochemical company Neste Corp., chemical recycler Alterra Energy and engineering and technology company Technip Energies have signed a collaboration agreement to provide the industry a standardized technology solution for the chemical recycling of plastics.

The partners say they aim to globally offer a standardized modular solution based on Akron, Ohio-based Alterra’s proprietary liquefaction technology to parties interested in building capacity for chemical recycling. They say the solution will come in the form of readily designed and engineered liquefaction plant modules, which will allow for lower preinvestment costs, accelerated implementation time, high predictability on project economics and reduced overall capital costs.

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Alterra says its technology is a thermochemical liquefaction process which converts hard-to-recycle plastics into a liquid hydrocarbon product. This liquid intermediate product then can be further refined into raw materials for new plastics and chemicals. To date, Finland-based Neste has processed more than 6,000 tons of plastic-derived feeds, including ISCC Plus certified oil from Alterra’s industrial-scale site in Akron.

Alterra and Neste began working together in chemical recycling in 2021, jointly improving aspects of Alterra’s technology and creating respective value chains. Alterra and France-based Technip started their collaboration in chemical recycling in 2022. Collectively, Alterra and Neste will license liquefaction technology and Technip will design, engineer and deliver the standardized liquefaction plant solution to interested parties globally.

“We have a proven technology for liquefaction that encompasses 15 years of research, development and improvement,” Alterra CEO Frederic Schmuck says. “Now, we are reducing the hurdles for companies interested in investing in liquefaction. We are ultimately enabling a copy-paste solution for liquefaction plants, allowing for a fast scale-up of economically viable recycling capacities globally.”

According to Andreas Teir, Neste’s head of chemical recycling, there is a strong demand for more sustainable solutions, and the three companies are ready to serve the demand.

“We have already established our role in processing circular feedstocks into high-quality raw materials for the petrochemicals industry, and our ambition is to grow these processed volumes over the upcoming months and years,” Teir says. “We are therefore looking forward to offering a robust and easy-to-deploy liquefaction technology to also contribute to meeting our own increasing demand for liquefied waste plastic.”

Bhaskar Patel, Technip’s senior vice president of sustainable fuels, chemicals and circularity, notes a recent trend in the circularity market wanting lower preinvestment costs and proven, in-use technology while allowing adopters to maintain their 2030 climate commitments.

“We look forward to supporting the market with Alterra’s proven technology, improved with Neste, and our standard modular solution, both seen as key enablers for scalable projects. We are confident that this solution, along with Neste’s brand power and expected increasing demand for liquefied waste plastic, will contribute to the fast deployment of new chemical recycling capacity.”