The company said the facility, which will have initial capacity to recycle 30,000 t/y of plastic waste, will be among the largest advanced recycling operations in North America.

ExxonMobil added that capacity could be expanded quickly if the US implements effective policy and regulations for the collection and sorting of residential and industrial plastic waste. The energy group said trials at Baytown have successfully recycled more than 1,000 t of plastic waste, demonstrating the capability to process 50 t/d of plastic waste.

“We’ve proven our proprietary advanced recycling technology in Baytown, and we’re scaling up operations to supply certified circular polymers by year-end,” said Karen McKee, president of ExxonMobil Chemical. “Availability of reliable advanced recycling capacity will play an important role in helping address plastic waste in the environment, and we are evaluating wide-scale deployment in other locations around the world.”

Plans are also under way to build about 500,000 t of advanced recycling capacity globally over the next five years. In France, ExxonMobil is collaborating with Plastic Energy to build an advanced recycling plant in Notre Dame de Gravenchon, which is expected to process 25,000 t/y of plastic waste when it starts up in 2023. There is potential for further expansion to 33,000 t/y. It is also assessing sites in the Netherlands, the US Gulf Coast, Canada and Singapore.

Last December, ExxonMobil and Agilyx created a joint venture to recover and sort plastic waste. The joint venture – Cyclyx International – is focused on developing ways to aggregate and pre-process large volumes of waste plastic for converting into feedstocks.

Author: Elaine Burridge, Freelance Journalist