Plastics have become one of the most ubiquitous materials in our daily life. However, the proliferation of waste plastics that contaminate rivers, oceans, and landfills each year has also brought adverse environmental impacts. This is a major global challenge and has sparked a strong interest in more efficient production, use, and disposal of plastics, in line with the principles of the circular economy. Also, there has been an increase in regulatory pressure regarding recycling quota and recyclability, along with strong commitments from the global chemical industry toward increasing the share of recycled material in its offerings.

Pyrolysis is one of the main methods for the chemical recycling of plastics. While plastic recycling is gaining momentum, many companies are still struggling in scaling pyrolysis technology. Pyrolysis plants of sizes 100,000-200,000 tpa are being discussed by industry players and are needed to attain the future goal of seeing great momentum in plastic recycling across all different industries around the globe so that significant progress toward a circular plastics model can be achieved. At present, plastic chemical recycling via pyrolysis is available only at a small scale (3,000-16,000 tpa). Many plants with a capacity from 16,000–100,000 tpa are still under planning and construction, and these firms are increasingly exploring the huge potential of chemical recycling via pyrolysis so that a large volume of plastic waste can be handled. The economics for a large-scale pyrolysis plant is challenging and largely dependent on the availability of upstream waste feedstock, its quality, and price, reactor configuration, the type of end-product considered, and the support from different stakeholders.

Fill out the form below to download the full whitepaper discussing the way ahead in the commercialization of pyrolysis technology for large-scale plastic chemical recycling.

Chemical Market Analytics’ Circular Plastics Service team will also be speaking at the Asia Chemical Forum on November 3 – 4, 2022 in Singapore.

Author:

Jonny Goyal
Director, Circular Plastics Service
Chemical Market Analytics by OPIS

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