At a virtual Investor Day presentation last week, CEO Jim Fitterling and Dow business heads elaborated on some of the plans that they said will enable the chemicals and plastics producer to provide an initial supply of fully circular polymers to customers starting in 2022.

With the market placing “significant value“ on circularity, Diego Donoso, business president for Packaging & Specialty Plastics, said Dow is addressing the “tremendous unmet demand” for circular and low carbon polymers – for example, expanding its 2019 cooperation with Fuenix Ecology to scale up circular plastics production through advanced recycling.

Building on the earlier agreement, the extended Dutch cooperation will include construction of a second plant at Weert, the Netherlands, where 20,000 t of waste plastic annually will be processed into pyrolysis oil that can be used as feedstock for new plastics at Dow’s Terneuzen site, also in the Netherlands.

In another Dutch partnership, Dow and Gunvor Petroleum Rotterdam have finalized an agreement to purify pyrolysis oil feedstocks derived from plastic waste as a first step toward making circular plastics a permanent part of the US group’s portfolio. Under the terms, Gunvor will begin supplying cracker-ready feedstock to Dow in 2021.

Additionally, Dow is fast-tracking the design, engineering and construction of its own market development scale purification unit in Terneuzen, to provide additional capacity to purify pyrolysis oil feedstock derived from plastic waste. Nearer to its home base, the US group has established a multi-year agreement with New Hope Energy at Tyler, Texas, to source pyrolysis oil feedstocks from the Texas company that converts plastics recycled in North America.

To be able to produce and sell certified circular plastic products, Dow said it has either already received or is on-track to receive International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC) for each of its major European sites.

In April this year, Dow linked up with Mura in the UK to leverage that company’s new HydroPRS (Hydrothermal Plastic Recycling Solution) advanced recycling process, which uses supercritical steam to convert plastics back into their starting materials. The process is claimed to be suitable to recycle all types of plastic, including heavily soiled multi-layer materials used in packaging that are usually incinerated or sent to landfill. The new plastics produced with the recyclate are expected to be suitable for use in food-contact packaging.

Mura’s process allows the spent plastics to be recycled multiple times, which Dow estimates could save an estimated 1.5 t of CO₂ per tonne of plastic recycled, compared with the values for incineration of unrecycled plastics. The UK firm is currently building a 20,000 t/y plant at Teesside, due on stream by 2022. With the planned four lines up and running, Mura will be able to recycle up to 80,000 t/y of plastic waste per year, providing Dow with input to produce virgin-grade plastic for packaging applications.

Toward the goal of carbon neutrality, Fitterling said Dow has already reduced its CO₂ emissions by 15% and expects to achieve its target of a 30% reduction, amounting to 5 million t/y, by 2030. To accelerate progress, he said the group will begin replacing end-of-life production facilities with capacity that has lower-carbon emissions, using both existing and new carbon-efficient technologies.

Author: Dede Williams, Freelance Journalist