NEWS|Plastic turns oil again igus invests in pioneering chemical recycling company

Renewable, sustainable and waste reduction: These are the ultimate goals of Catalytic Hydrothermal Reactor (Cat-HTR) technology. It can recycle plastic waste within 20 minutes. The oil obtained can be used again to make new engineering plastic products. To support the circular economy of plastics, igus invested 4.7 million euros in a company and plans to put into operation the first commercial Cat-HTR plant.

 

Eight million metric tons of plastic are deposited into the oceans of the world every year. These lost resources are worth about $ 80 billion. The problem is: so far, most plastics have been incinerated, and only 14% have been recycled. Plastic recycling is also an important issue for igus.

 

Since October last year, igus has taken bold actions in terms of conventional recycling (shredding and recycling plastic) and launched a new chainge project. Regardless of the manufacturer, the company can recycle the energy chain that has reached the end of its service life. Then we recycle the plastic and process it again. Frank Blase, CEO of igus GmbH, said: "Through the igus chainge project, we started to recycle the plastics of old products."

 

Use water, heat and pressure to turn plastic into oil

 

However, there is still a problem of mixed waste worldwide. The number of non-industrial plastics is 100 to 1000 times more. Blase said: "Chemical recycling provides a new solution to this problem. In the middle of last year, I read an article about catalytic hydrothermal reactor technology in the German newspaper FAZ. The next day, I contacted Professor Thomas Maschmeyer, a German inventor. "

 

Seven months later, after extensive research, igus is now investing four million pounds (about 4.7 million euros) in Mura Technology Limited for the construction of the first Cat-HTR plant. The patented Chemical Catalytic Hydrothermal Reactor (Cat-HTR) technology was developed in 2007 and tested at a pilot plant in Australia for 10 years. Cat-HTR technology converts plastic waste that was previously unrecyclable into oil within 20 minutes. This saves resources more than extracting fossil fuels underground. Just use water, high temperature and high pressure to separate the molecules and recombine them. A factory can process 20,000 tons of plastic a year and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 28,180 tons. This is equivalent to the annual energy demand of 5,983 cars or 4,914 households.

 

Cat-HTR plastic recycling factory