Upcycling of post-consumer plastics is a technology that is able to recycle the polymers present into waste, producing a high-quality result. The process includes a careful selection phase, sorting by polymer and colour, and a volume reduction phase (shredding large plastic waste into flakes), then transforming the flakes into granules (small balls) of a certain colour with certain physical characteristics.
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The best of green chemistry
The model developed by NextChem involves an integrated platform of green chemistry technologies, including Upcycling, the quality mechanical recycling of plastic waste, chemical recycling of plastic and dry waste, and production of green hydrogen from renewable sources and electrolysis.
#1UpcyclingUpcycling of post-consumer plastics allows for quality products to be obtained by transforming plastic waste into a secondary raw material.
#2Chemical recyclingChemical recycling makes it possible to obtain circular chemicals and fuels from non-recyclable municipal waste.
#3Green HydrogenGreen hydrogen is the most sustainable type of hydrogen and is obtained through electrolysis technology from renewable sources.
Upcycling
Upcycling produces recycled materials with high performance qualities, which can be used as a substitute for virgin (petroleum-derived) plastics in a wide range of applications, thereby saving fossil fuels and CO2. Upcycling gives plastic waste a second life as Secondary Raw Materials (SRMs), and the end products are able to bridge the quality gap between recycled and virgin plastics. MyReplast™ Upcycling technology is extremely flexible, giving it the ability to process various types of plastic waste, both from industrial post-consumer sources (such as drums, pallets, car parts) and from municipal post-consumer sources. Given its high efficiency, Upcycling allows for up to 95% of incoming plastic materials to be recovered, guarantees high-quality finished products by combining mechanical recycling and chemical treatment, and enables the production of high-purity and high-quality plastics. The final products can also be bespoke, because specific results based on customers’ needs can be achieved through a formulation and compounding phase.
Chemical recycling
Our technological solution for chemical recycling (i.e. waste to chemical) allows us to obtain circular chemicals and fuels from plastic waste that cannot be mechanically recycled. These include waste resulting from the sorting process of plastic packaging from municipal waste, and what is known as Refused Derived Fuels (RDF), a fraction of unsorted waste that has undergone a qualitative selection. NextChem’s technological solution allows for a syngas to be obtained by chemically converting carbon and hydrogen from waste via a partial oxidation process. They subsequently undergo a purification phase, which releases zero emissions into the atmosphere. The technology was created by JFE and has been used for years in Japan.
This syngas, rich in H2 (hydrogen) and CO (carbon monoxide) while remaining free of aromatic hydrocarbons, is a circular gas, because it is thus recovered from post-consumer materials.
Using a range of technologies, Circular Gas™ can be used to produce products including hydrogen, methanol, ethanol and ammonia – chemical products that can be used as fuels for sustainable mobility and as building blocks for the production of other derivatives, meaning chemical products that are essential in the production of all the things that surround us. These products have a lower carbon footprint compared to petroleum derivatives, making them instrumental in the transition towards a decarbonised, climate-friendly economy.
We can make Circular Hydrogen™ using this technology at a competitive cost compared to conventional hydrogen already today, making it a possible solution for transitioning towards a fully developed green-hydrogen economy.
This technology differs from incineration, as chemical conversion is based on a partial oxidation process, without combustion, avoiding dioxin generation. The syngas from partial oxidation is converted into chemical products (no power generation). The process residues are inert and can be recovered for industrial applications.
No polluting emissions are released into the atmosphere, and the CO2 produced is offset by what is saved through avoiding incineration. CO2 can also be neutralized by adding green hydrogen to the process.
Green Hydrogen
The use of electrolysis powered by renewable energy sources allows to produce green hydrogen, the most sustainable type of hydrogen, with zero CO2 emissions. In terms of the production of conventional hydrogen, Maire Tecnimont has long-standing expertise in this field that today it wishes to apply to the energy transition by developing blue hydrogen technologies (including CO2 capture and recovery), circular hydrogen technologies (able to be obtained through chemical recycling) and green hydrogen technologies, the most environmentally sustainable type of hydrogen that is produced from water, wind and sun. This ability is already a reality for us.
