Orlando, Fla. — Certified-circular resins were in focus for ExxonMobil Corp. at NPE2024 in Orlando.
"Sustainability is a core part of what we're talking about," Matt Loach, global polyethylene marketing manager, said at the event. "We're designing materials for recycling in monomaterial products and for downgauging to do more with less material."
ExxonMobil's polypropylene resins and Vistamaxx and Exact elastomers also have "a good, strong solution set," added J. Dow, global market development manager for those materials. Circular versions of those materials are being used in food packaging and other applications.
"Vistamaxx is like a Swiss Army knife," Dow said. "It can do a lot of different things."
In late 2022, Houston-based ExxonMobil opened a chemical recycling plant in Baytown, Texas. That unit can process 80 million pounds of plastic waste per year. By the end of 2026, ExxonMobil plans to have 1 billion pounds of global chemical recycling capacity with plants in the U.S., Europe and Asia-Pacific.
"We see sustainability as a complex challenge for the industry, but when you look at our capital investments, you can see what we're doing," Loach said.
ExxonMobil's certified-circular polymers leverage the firm's Exxtend-brand technology for chemial recycling. These materials also incorporate ExxonMobil's performance polymers, which officials said can help boost performance while enabling sustainability benefits.
Examples include:
• Packaging designed for recyclability, including monomaterial polyethylene lamination films, lap seal/fin seal pouches and PE-rich barrier packaging films, including vacuum sealed and thermoformed structures.
• Ways to incorporate recycled content with ExxonMobil performance polymers, which can help to maintain or boost performance. Items on display at NPE will include collation shrink films and heavy-duty sacks.
• Applications that can do more with less, including downgauged greenhouse films, pond liners, laminated films and heavy-duty sacks for agricultural and industrial products.
• Value-added rotational molding rigid packaging solutions.
ExxonMobil has continued to add resin capacity in North America. In September 2023, the firm added more than 1.5 billion pounds of specialty materials production in Baytown.
A new performance polymers line in Baytown has annual production capacity of almost 900 million pounds of Vistamaxx and Exact. Applications include automotive parts, construction materials and packaging applications.
A new linear alpha olefins unit will have almost 800 million pounds of annual production capacity for Elevexx-brand LAOs. The unit marks ExxonMobil's entry into the market. LAOs are used in plastic packaging, engine and industrial oils, and other applications.
ExxonMobil Chemical is a major supplier of PE, polypropylene and specialty resins. The business is a unit of global energy giant ExxonMobil Corp.