Dow invests in Mura Technology for increased production of circular HydroPRS plants
06 Oct 2022 --- Mura Technology has received an investment from Dow to fortify the duo’s partnership in furthering accessibility to advanced plastic recycling in the US and Europe.
The companies started their partnership based on constructing the world’s first plant using Mura’s Hydrothermal Plastic Recycling Solution (HydroPRS) process. Hydro PRS is a form of advanced recycling that uses supercritical water to convert waste plastics into stable products for use in manufacturing new plastics and other materials.
The new investment will enable UK-based company Mura to develop multiple HydroPRS plants in Europe and the US. The partnership plans to lead to the construction of numerous advanced recycling facilities, adding up to 600 kilotons of aggregate advanced recycling capacity by 2030.
“We are excited to move forward with the creation of a series of financeable HydroPR plants in Europe and the US that will accelerate a circular plastics economy,” says Steve Mahon, chief executive officer at Mura Technology.
Dow has invested in Mura Technology to build more HydroPRS plants to lower CO2 emissions.
How it is made: HydroPRS
The HydroPRS process recovers plastics that cannot be recycled by mechanical means for use in circular economies. They use materials, including flexible and multilayer plastics, that have been deemed unrecyclable into the original oils and chemicals from which they were made.
This process creates virgin-equivalent plastic products which are suitable for food packaging. Mura states its “mission is to eliminate global plastic pollution and create sustainable societies.”
According to Innova Market Insights, 40% of users in Western European countries favor flexible packaging for foods and confectionery items over non-recyclable packages.
“Mura’s collaboration with Dow has led to the largest commitment across the industry to date, showcasing the urgency from industry leaders to adopt scalable solutions such as HydroPRS that will transform the plastics industry worldwide,” Steve Mahon, chief executive officer at Mura Technology previously told PackagingInsights.
The new plant is working to create technology to prevent millions of tons of plastic and CO2 from entering the environment every year and turn a US$80 billion lost resource of plastic waste into a valuable global commodity.
From the donation, Mura hopes to move closer to its plan of having 1 million metric tons of plastic recycling capacity in operation or development by 2025.
Past plans
The two companies joining forces to optimize plastic recycling was first announced last year. Their original site planned after their union is expected to be fully operational in 2023 with an initial 20 kilotons per annum production line.
HydroPRS plants built by Mura are set to aid in reducing single-use plastics.
Last month, Dow and Mura announced plans to construct a new HydroPRS facility in Germany at Dow’s Böhlen site and created a circular feed. The companies used plastic waste destined for incineration or landfill, reducing reliance on virgin fossil-based feedstocks and enabling Dow to produce recycled plastic in high demand from global brands – particularly for high-end sensitive markets like food and medical applications.
“The collaboration not only accelerates the strategic transformation of our feedstock slate and enables us to secure circular feedstocks; it also helps us meet strong and growing customer demand for circular polymers,” says Diego Donoso, president of Dow’s packaging and specialty plastics.
However, HydroPRS is not the only recent solution for more circular recycling techniques. Researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder, US, recently discovered how to infinitely recycle plastic in chemical recycling by manipulating the monomers and polymers in the material.
They stated any current recycling plant could use their methods, reducing the effort and costs of building new plants.
By Sabine Waldeck
