Ineos picks Scotland for advanced recycling pilot program

Ineos Olefins & Polymers Europe and Plastic Energy have announced plans to trial the use of  Tacoil, a liquid raw material derived through a pyrolysis process from post-consumer waste plastics, as an alternative to fossil-based crude, in the Petroineos refinery operations at Grangemouth, Scotland.

Petroineos, a joint venture formed between Ineos and PetroChina in 2011, operates Scotland’s only crude oil refinery.

The preliminary trial will launch in the first quarter of 2022, pending an updated policy environment in the United Kingdom that will serve as a starting point for the planned development of a large-scale chemical recycling plant.

The various types of advanced recycling offer pathways to convert plastic waste into valuable resources, working towards a closed-loop system for plastics management. What these technologies have in common is their ability to turn hard-to-recycle plastics, such as mixed, multi-layer, flexible or contaminated plastics, back into food grade recycled plastics or other products through chemical, thermal or biological processes.

They can help to  reduce landfill as well as to reduce the use of fossil derived raw materials, contributing to a reduction in total CO2 emissions.

The technology developed by Plastic Energy is based on pyrolysis. The company already operates two recycling plants in Spain. The patented technology, called Thermal Anaerobic Conversion (TAC), produces Tacoil, which in this case will be processed  in the existing Petroineos refineries at Grangemouth.

Developed over the past 10 years by Plastic Energy, the technology allows  formerly unrecyclable plastics to be effectively diverted from landfills or from being incinerated and instead to be recycled into a feedstock that can be used in petrochemical plants to make ethylene and propylene. According to the company, for every metric ton of end-of-life plastic waste processed, 850 litres of chemical feedstock Tacoil are produced.

Petroineos will supply the recycled raw material to Ineos Olefins & Polymers Europe, who operates the petrochemical plants at Grangemouth. Here, it will be further processed into Certified Circular plastic with the identical properties expected of conventional plastics made from oil and gas.

 “We are pleased to announce this trial in Scotland, which exemplifies a strong partnership between companies working together to take big strides to reduce plastic waste in the UK,” said Carlos Monreal, founder and CEO of Plastic Energy.

This innovative trial is a further positive step towards eliminating waste and makes circular economy solutions possible, noted Peter Grant, business director at Ineos Olefins & Polymers (UK) Europe. Today’s announcement is a milestone on Ineos’ journey to implementing this technology at scale, he said.

“Turning end of life plastic into new food-grade quality packaging products makes environmental and commercial sense. Advanced recycling adds to the existing initiatives within our product portfolio to make greater use of post-consumer material, while ensuring that sustainable solutions meet all safety, quality and performance in-use standards,” he said.