Hoop®-chemical recycling towards infinitely recyclable plastic
Conversion: turning it into raw materials, Versalis
Versalis’ project to develop a new sustainable technology to chemically recycle mixed plastic waste
Hoop® is a project launched by Versalis to develop a new sustainable technology and value chain to chemically recycle mixed plastic waste of variable composition with the aim of reaching the highest recovery of material with a low carbon footprint.
To this end, Versalis has signed a joint development agreement with an Italian engineering company which owns a pyrolysis technology. This technology will be further developed to transform mixed plastic waste that cannot be mechanically recycled into raw materials to be used as feedstock to produce new virgin polymers suitable for even the most complex and demanding applications.
Pyrolysis is a high temperature process that, in the absence of oxygen, breaks down polymers into smaller molecules without any combustion. It produces liquid and gaseous cuts that can be used to replace virgin naphta (hydrocarbon mixture) as feedstock for chemical plants.
Versalis will leverage its technological and industrial expertise to build a first plant with a capacity of 6,000 tonnes per year of feedstock at its Mantova site and progressively scale it up, starting from its sites in Italy.
As an essential part of its strategy, Versalis is developing a business model embedding the Circular Economy according to three pillars strictly connected with innovation and taking the whole life cycle of products into consideration: eco-design, feedstock diversification and recycling technologies for polymers.
