Sustainable Chemical recycling through HOOP technology

Introduction

The SC-HOOP® (Sustainable Chemical recycling through HOOP® technology) project is the realization of a pilot plant with a feedstock capacity of 6,000 tonnes/year. The plant is based on a Versalis proprietary technology named HOOP®, for the valorization of plastic waste that is currently not recyclable. This will be used to produce a recycled naphtha which can replace steam cracker feedstocks, to produce new polymers suitable for all applications with a relative greenhouse gas emission avoidance of 81% compared to the reference scenario.

Current Recycling Challenges

From all of the collected plastic waste in Europe, only about a third is recycled. This is mainly because plastic products are made up of heterogeneous materials with complex structures.

These challenges include:

• Difficulty in re-processing while maintaining quality standards
• Hindrance to mechanical recycling
• Potential for down-cycling

The SC-HOOP® project is complementary to mechanical recycling and drastically improves the circularity of plastic products, closing the loop of the plastics lifecycle.

Advantages of HOOP® Technology

The HOOP® technology presents several advantages with respect to traditional pyrolysis, such as:

1. Higher yield
2. Greater feedstock flexibility
3. High quality of r-naphtha suitable to be directly fed to steam crackers

The pilot plant will produce 4,860 tonnes/year of recycled naphtha, converting 6,000 tons/year of mixed plastic waste, with absolute greenhouse gas emissions avoidance of 139,838 tonnes of CO2 equivalent over the first ten years of operation compared to equivalent virgin naphtha production from oil refinery.

Contribution to Circular Economy

Chemical recycling and, more specifically, the SC-HOOP® project, is pivotal in supporting the implementation and development of a circular economy. The SC-HOOP® project development is strategic to achieve the challenging EU recycling targets and full circularity of plastics.

Future Scalability

The HOOP® technology can be applied “as is” to any location where mixed plastic waste is available. In future industrial scale-up, proximity to a steam-cracking plant makes the whole process economically and environmentally more convenient.

The benefits of proximity include:

• Simplified logistics
• Enhanced energy and material recovery

The HOOP® technology is designed to build its innovative section in a modular way, such as the reaction section, while other sections can be easily scaled up. The pilot plant construction and operation will allow the consolidation of data for scale-up, and the plant could be replicated in other Versalis site units.