Enviro and Chalmers University target next-gen recycling to decarbonize Sweden’s chemical industry

05 Jul 2023 --- Enviro Systems (Enviro) is participating in a three-year project at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden to reduce the carbon footprint of West Sweden’s chemicals industry. The partnership is leveraging combined knowledge to develop the next generation of Enviro’s pyrolysis-based recycling technology.

The project is part of the innovation agency Vinnova’s ten-year Vinnväxt initiative “Klimatledande processindustri” (Climate Leading Process Industry). The initiative aims to support the country’s chemicals industry’s transition from fossil fuel dependence to a renewable and recovered raw materials industry. Other project participants include trading company Stena and chemicals business Borealis.

The sub-project involving Enviro’s technology addresses the recovery of complex polymers and is led by the Division of Energy Technology at the Department of Space, Earth and Environment at Chalmers University of Technology.

“Chalmers has access to qualified and world-class competence in the research sector and capabilities to structure and execute many types of scientific tests utilizing standardized and novel methods,” Enviro’s CEO, Thomas Sörensson, tells Packaging Insights.

Thomas Sörensson, CEO at Enviro Systems.Next-gen recycling
Enviro is co-financing the research and Sörensson says that the contribution from Chalmers will “add value where we lack time or resources to conduct certain phases of research, for instance.” They also aim to work with a wider perspective related to material recycling of polymers and other materials with similar characteristics or potential.

As part of the project, Chalmers scientists visited Enviro’s plant in Åsensbruk last week to see the operation process and to investigate possibilities for taking joint measurements.

By combining Enviro’s experience in pyrolysis with the latest research findings, the parties hope to collaborate on developing the next generation of material recycling solutions using pyrolysis.

“The aim is to study the technology more closely to obtain a better understanding of it and to be able to make future improvements,” says Martin Seemann, associate professor at Chalmers University.

Sörensson adds: “We have more than ten years of practical experience with pyrolysis. The collaboration with Chalmers means that we can combine that experience with advanced research to develop the next generation of pyrolysis-based solutions for different materials.”

Growing tire pyrolysis oil demands Sweden is still dependent on fossil fuels and will be for some time, says Sörensson.
Enviro has been focusing on the recovery of high-quality and consistent quality of recovered carbon black materials for over 20 years with the target to create a sustainable filler material able to substitute fossil material.

“Our ambition is to continue to develop tire pyrolysis oil (TPO) to be utilized downstream in a sustainable and potentially circular way. Our ISCC-EU and ISCC-Plus certified TPO can, depending on downstream customers, substitute fossil resources already today,” notes Enviro’s CEO.

The scaling of the company’s technology is said to support its customers in reaching their recycling targets and, at the same time, boost the tire industry in recovering end-of-life tires sustainably.

“Sweden is still very dependent on fossil fuels for the transport sector and will be for quite some time even if electrification is rapidly growing,” highlights Sörensson.

“But our market for the TPO is not only Sweden, even if we see benefits of short-distance transport to reduce the CO2 footprint whenever possible.”

“The chemicals industry will have an increasing demand for TPO due to the benefits of high bio-content and that it is a recycled resource. It is inevitable that such resources will become increasingly valuable for several reasons, referring to transport-related CO2 footprints but also supply risks as we are experiencing in the last couple of years.”

By Natalie Schwertheim

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