Ineos Styrolution introduces new recycled range materials

Düsseldorf, Germany — Having recently established the recyclability of polystyrene through its ResolVe project, Ineos Styrolution highlighted its focus on sustainability at K 2019.

The company's new family of solutions to enable a circular economy for styrenics had just been introduced under a brand called Ineos Styrolution ECO before the show in Düsseldorf. It includes products made from mechanically or chemically recycled post-consumer waste as well as materials based on renewable feedstock.

The company said the new product range matches the performance of its existing product portfolio.

"In short: Ineos Styrolution is bringing sustainable products to market without sacrificing performance," said Rob Buntinx, Ineos Styrolution president, Europe, Middle East and Africa.

In the run-up to K, Ineos Styrolution unveiled the progress of its ResolVe project, which offers proof of concept that PS is "made for recycling."

The technology converts post-consumer PS back to pure styrene via a depolymerization process. The monomer is purified by distillation and then goes through a polymerization process that produces PS identical to virgin resin in terms of quality and properties.

Ineos Styrolution is also a founding member of industry initiative Styrenics Circular Solutions (SCS), which aims to advance the circularity of PS and styrenic materials.

Along with Trinseo, another SCS founding member, the companies have agreed to combine resources to advance the development of a commercial-scale chemical recycling plant in Europe. The partnership builds on a previous North American trial chemical recycling process technology developed by Agilyx LLC.

In July, Ineos Styrolution announced a collaboration with Belgian waste management company Indaver NV to drive chemical recycling forward in Europe, according to Buntinx.

"The collaboration will benefit from a first depolymerization installation with a capacity of 15,000 [metric] tons a year. It is expected to be operational in 2021," he added.

As part of the agreement, Indaver will convert post-consumer materials at its plastics2chemicals demonstration plant in Antwerp to provide raw materials to be further processed by Ineos Styrolution.

Future locations beyond the initial installation will be decided based on the results with the Antwerp site and based on market response, the company official added.

Based on the project, the first-of-a-kind PS chemical recycling facility, with the capacity to process up to 50 tonnes per day, will be built in Europe, Buntinx added.

But sustainability is not the only topic Styrolution brought to the show.

Following the successful launch of its composite brand StyLight at K 2016, Ineos Styrolution is now studying expanding production with the construction of a new production site for its SAN-based composites.

"Our evaluation for a potential future StyLight production site is ongoing. What we can say at this point in time is that this potential investment would be located in Germany," Buntinx added.

The composite materials excel with a combination of structural stiffness, aesthetics, processability, dimensional stability and a surface quality close to Class A.

The portfolio has recently been expanded to include polypropylene-based StyLight.

"With the introduction of polypropylene-based StyLight, the number of possible applications has grown. The focus industries for the material, however, has not changed. Due to the superior surface aesthetic of the material, it is an obvious choice for automotive applications," Buntinx said.

Recent examples include an interior console validated by ARRK Shapers' and an application for exterior usage from a leading Asian OEM, Buntinx said.

Ineos Styrolution also sees a strong interest for StyLight from OEMs in the electronics and sports industries.

The company has also reinforced its commitment to styrenics with a series of expansion plans in the U.S., France and China.

In August, Ineos Styrolution announced the construction of a 100-kilotonne-per-annum ASA plant in Bayport, Texas, and the conversion of its existing polystyrene production lines to mass ABS production with the capacity to produce 50 ktpa.

"Our commitment to polystyrene as part of our overall strategy and to growth markets is shown in the recent acquisition of two polystyrene plants in China. Polystyrene continues to be a material of choice for several industries," Buntinx said.