Lummus announced in October 2020 that it was cooperating with New Hope Technologies to further develop and market thermal pyrolysis technology for converting waste plastic. New Hope operates a plastic waste conversion plant in Tyler, Texas, USA, with a capacity of 50,000 t/y. Under the cooperation, Lummus’ Green Circle is the exclusive licensor of the technology, also providing studies, basic engineering, technical services and proprietary equipment.

Phigenesis has plans for developing five similar-sized projects in Europe. Chris Moore, CEO of Phigenesis, commented: “Phigenesis is committed to delivering meaningful volume contributions to the circular and low emission economy, using significant quantities of otherwise unrecycled and incinerated waste plastics to produce feedstock for petrochemical facilities to make plastics, displacing virgin materials.”

Korea acetylenes project

In separate news, Lummus Technology has won a contract to supply a C4 acetylenes selective hydrogenation unit to Korea Petrochemical.  The unit, which will process 37,000 t/y of feedstock, is part of the South Korean company’s expansion of its Onsan plant at Ulsan.

The facility will upgrade a byproduct waste stream by selectively hydrogenating C4 acetylenes to produce larger quantities of butadiene and raffinate products, which will be used to produce rubber and supply Korea Petrochemical’s olefins conversion unit. Lummus added that the unit will prevent the burning of the byproduct stream as fuel, which will in turn reduce emissions at the plant.

Under the terms of the contract, Lummus will provide a license and basic engineering for the Lummus/BASF Selop technology.

Korea Petrochemical has selected several Lummus technologies in the past 30 years at Onsan. The licenses include a naphtha-cracking complex, an olefins conversion unit and a butadiene extraction unit.

Author: Elaine Burridge, Freelance Journalist