ExxonMobil Starts up Advanced Recycling Plant
ExxonMobil has started up what it says is one of the largest advanced recycling facilities in North America at its integrated manufacturing complex in Baytown, Texas, where the company uses proprietary Exxtend technology to break down hard-to-recycle plastics and process them into chemical feedstock.
The facility has capacity to process more than 80 million pounds (about 36 million kg) of plastic waste annually, diverting it from landfill. Since starting pilot operations at Baytown last year, ExxonMobil said it has recycled nearly 15 million pounds of plastic waste.
“We’ve proven our proprietary advanced recycling technology at Baytown, and now we’re leveraging our scale and integration to increase production of certified circular plastics to meet growing demand,” said Karen McKee, president of ExxonMobil Product Solutions Company.
Together with LyondellBasell, the Irving, Texas-based oil and petrochemicals major formed the joint venture Cyclyx International, which collects and sorts large volumes of plastic waste and is investing in what it touts as a first-of-its-kind plastic waste processing facility nearby Houston to help supply the new Baytown advanced recycling facility.
ExxonMobil said it plans to build advanced recycling facilities at many of its other manufacturing site worldwide, which would give it capacity to process up to 1 billion pounds of plastic waste annually by the end of 2026.
The company said it is assessing facilities in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Beaumont, Texas and Joliet, Illinois in the US as well as at sites in Belgium, the Netherlands, Singapore and Canada.
ExxonMobil is also collaborating with third parties to assess the potential for large-scale implementation of advanced recycling technologies and opportunities to support improvements to plastic waste collection and sorting in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Author: Dede Williams, Freelance Journalist
