GERMANY – American chemical company Dow has partnered with Mura Technology to construct a new advanced recycling facility at Dow’s Böhlen site in Germany.
The facility reportedly will be the largest facility of its kind to date in Europe with a potential capacity of 120-kilo tonnes per annum (KTA).
According to Mura and Dow, the project is targeted for a final investment decision by the end of 2023 and is expected to be operational by 2025.
The companies say the planned facility builds on their ongoing partnership, first announced in 2021, with the companies aiming to build multiple advanced recycling facilities in the US and Europe to add as much as 600 KT of aggregate capacity by 2030.
Dow and Mura initially worked on a project to construct the world’s first plant using Mura’s HydroPRS advanced recycling process; located in Teesside, UK, it is expected to be operational in 2023 with an initial 20 KTA production line.
According to the companies, the Böhlen site would enable a significantly larger capacity for plastic waste and considerably increase the supply of what the companies call circular feedstock to the industry.
“The continuation and growth of Dow and Mura’s collaboration is another example of how Dow is working strategically to expand and build momentum around securing circular feedstocks and supporting breakthrough advanced recycling technologies,” said Isam Shomaly, Dow Business Vice President for Feedstocks and Commodities.
This circular feed, derived from plastic waste currently destined for incineration or landfill, would reduce reliance on virgin fossil-based feedstocks and would enable Dow to produce recycled plastic which is in high demand from global brands, particularly for high-end sensitive markets like food and medical applications.
Dow aims to take advantage of co-location benefits, which could significantly reduce the cost of scaling advanced recycling facilities.
In addition, the co-location of Mura’s facilities at Dow locations would be expected to reduce carbon emissions by minimizing transportation of the offtake and as gas output from the advanced recycling process can be converted back to plastics, thereby ensuring no by-products go to waste.
Mura’s HydroPRS (Hydrothermal Plastic Recycling Solution) advanced recycling process uses supercritical steam to convert most forms of plastic, including flexible and multi-layer plastics, back into the original oils and chemicals from which they were made. Mura says its technology allows the same material to be recycled repeatedly.
Diego Donoso, President of Dow Packaging & Specialty Plastics, comments: “We continue to increase Dow’s capacity to use recycled content as feedstock and continue to invest in the most effective technology available to enable our circular business model for plastics.
“The diversification of our feedstock slate and decarbonization of our assets will enable the achievement of Dow’s goal of a sustainable, low-carbon future, and meet strong and growing customer demand for circular polymers.
“This will be a significant step forward to decrease our dependency on virgin fossil-based feedstocks.”
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