Austria-based OMV will build a chemical recycling demonstration plant integrated with its 200,000 b/d Schwechat refinery.
The plant will have a nameplate capacity of 16,000 t/yr and is scheduled to start-up in early-2023, the firm said today. It will use OMV's ReOil technology for chemical recycling of post-consumer-plastic into synthetic crude. The project will be financed using 'green' loans, but OMV did not disclose a precise figure.
The development is the latest in OMV's ambition to develop a commercial scale ReOil plant by 2026, with a nameplate capacity of up to 200,000 t/yr. In 2018, it had partnered with Austria-based petrochemicals producer Borealis — in which it owns a 75pc controlling stake — to enhance its presence in the chemical recycling space. OMV also supplies ethylene and propylene to Borealis' polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) plants at Schwechat.
OMV operates a small ReOil pilot plant that is integrated into its refinery, which has a nameplate capacity of 100 kg/hour and has operated for 13,000 hours since being commissioned in 2018.
Chemical recycling and interest for circular polymers have seen increased traction this year, from producers and downstream buyers and converters. Borealis has also made various inroads on increasing its presence in this space. In April, US-based packaging company Berry Global Group signed an agreement to offtake Borealis' first circular PP produced using exclusively chemically-recycled resins. In June, Borealis signed an agreement to offtake the entire annual renewable feedstock production of Renasci, totalling 20,000 t/yr. Borealis will process the bio-feedstock supplied by Renasci at its Porvoo cracker in Finland, to produce its circular polymers range that it markets as Borcycle C.
