New pilot plant for the chemical recycling of complex PET waste

This equipment allows scaling up chemical recycling processes to a suitable size between laboratory processes and industrial plants.

2023/11/28 GAIKER, Technology Centre, member of the Basque Research & Technology Alliance (BRTA), together with the Swiss company POLYMETRIX AG have developed an innovative technology and built a new pilot plant for the chemical recycling of PET waste.

This equipment has a 150 L chemical reactor and a line of post-treatment with batch and continuous purification stages that allows it to produce high purity chemical monomers, valid for the synthesis of new PET, including food grade, and other high added value products such as PU resins, unsaturated polyester, paints, etc. Thus, it can respond to the needs of different sectors such as plastic waste recycling, petrochemical and polymer synthesis, while promoting the circular economy.

Thanks to this plant, GAIKER can evaluate the suitability of complex PET waste to produce high purity chemical monomers and define the design basis for industrial plants for the treatment of this type of waste streams. In addition GAIKER can produce test material at different process stages to develop scale-up parameters and quality parameters at each process step.

Recycling and Circular Economy Area
GAIKER is an expert in Recycling and Circular Economy. It works on the characterization and treatment of material streams from pre- and post-consumer waste of all origins, using innovative identification and separation systems. It also develops both chemical recycling processes (pyrolysis and solvolysis), following the concepts of Plastic2Plastic, Plastic2Chemicals and Plastic2Oil&Gas to obtain monomers, chemical products, pyrolysis oils, syngas and new circular plastics, and technologies for the preparation of solid recovered fuel (SRF). In addition, it measures and improves the sustainability of the products and processes developed through life cycle analysis tools (LCA, LCC, SLCA, LCSA) and the application of ecodesign methodologies (DfX, SSbD).

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Clara Bilbao, bilbaoc@gaiker.es

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