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.
