Recycled plastics must demonstrate lower carbon footprint – Mura Technology

Atlanta, GEORGIA (ICIS)–Recycled plastics producers must show that their products have a lower carbon footprint than not only incineration of plastic waste but also the production of virgin plastics, an executive from Mura Technology said.

“If you wish to persevere in this market, you need to demonstrate that your process is a value-add from a carbon footprint standpoint,” said Oliver Borek, chief commercial officer of Mura Technology, at the ICIS Recycled Polymers Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, US.

“It’s pointless if you are just trying to address circularity but your carbon footprint is worse than fossil. The NGOs are going to be all over you and down the line you will find that customers will turn away from you,” he added.

Companies seeking to demonstrate viability on this should look at generating independent and peer reviewed life cycle analysis (LCA) for their process, he noted.

“They should definitely show that you outperform incineration or in the US, landfill considerations, and you should outperform fossil equivalent because you will have an uphill battle if you don’t,” said Borek.

“It would also be very good if you can conform to certain NGO requirements such as WWF (World Wildlife Fund) principles. When you speak with large food companies and brand names, they do respect the opinions of groups like the WWF and Greenpeace and so on. They are very sensitive to how they are portrayed in the public,” he added.

The WWF position on chemical recycling includes chemically recycled plastics have at least a 20% lower carbon footprint than virgin production, among other requirements.

LIFE CYCLE ANALYSIS
The Consumer Goods Forum recently published a report in Europe with an LCA for the Mura process showing around 20% lower global warming potential (GWP) versus available data sets for pyrolysis chemical recycling processes, Borek pointed out.

In April 2022, the Consumer Goods Forum released an LCA of chemical recycling done by Sphera, showing that chemically recycled plastics via pyrolysis offer a 43% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared with producing plastics from fossil fuels and incineration at the end of life.

Mura’s technology – called HydroPRS (Hydrothermal Plastic Recycling Solution) uses supercritical water – made from high heat and pressure – to break down polymer bonds.

The LCA also shows a clear pathway to net zero carbon emissions for Mura’s process as it produces gases that can be recycled into products and can use renewable energy, Borek said.

In terms of resource efficiency, 1 tonne of product from Mura’s recycling process avoids around 5 bbl or oil production, he added.

In September, Dow and Mura Technology announced that Mura would build the largest chemically recycled plastics project in Europe at Dow’s site in Boehlen, Germany, at 120,000 tonnes/year of output capacity. A final investment decision is targeted by the end of 2023 and the plant could start up by 2025.

Dow and Mura plan to construct multiple 120,000 tonne/year projects in the US and Europe, adding as much as 600,000 tonnes/year of capacity.

Mura also has a 120,000 tonne/year project planned in Seattle, Washington, US, called Mura Cascade ELP (End-of-Life Plastic) with start-up expected in late 2024 and offtake by Chevron Phillips Chemical.

The Mura project in Seattle will make use of hydroelectric power while the project at Dow’s Germany site will use renewable energy, “turbocharging” the resulting products’ green credentials, said Borek in an earlier interview with ICIS.

Focus article by Joseph Chang