Honeywell commercializes advanced recycling tech for mixed plastics in Sacyr joint venture

09 Nov 2021 --- Honeywell has commercialized a “revolutionary recycling process” for producing recycled plastics from different plastic types. The new technology can reduce fossil fuel dependency by eliminating virgin plastics while enabling “hundreds of recycling cycles.” 

The Fortune 100 company’s UpCycle Process Technology utilizes industry-leading molecular conversion, pyrolysis, and contaminants management technology to convert waste plastic back to Honeywell Recycled Polymer Feedstock, used to create new plastics.

Significantly, the technology expands the plastic types that can be recycled to include waste plastic that would otherwise go unrecycled, including colored, flexible, multilayered packaging and polystyrene.

When used in conjunction with other chemical and mechanical recycling processes – along with improvements to collection and sorting – Honeywell’s technology can increase the amount of recycled global plastic waste to 90%, the company claims.

Sacyr joint venture
Sacyr, a Spain-based global engineering and services company with operations in more than 20 countries, will be the first to deploy Honeywell’s proprietary UpCycle Process Technology.

Honeywell’s tech expands the plastic types that can be recycled, including colored, flexible, multilayered packaging and polystyrene.Honeywell and Sacyr will form a joint venture, where the two companies will co-own and operate a facility in Andalucía, Southern Spain, with a capacity to transform 30,000 metric tons of mixed waste plastics into recycled polymer feedstock per year. Production is expected to begin in 2023.

“Our partnership with Honeywell will enable Sacyr to bring [environmentally] sustainable, circular solutions to market,” outlines Domingo Jiménez, manager at Sacyr Circular. “The speed with which we can start up plants and the solution’s global viability has the potential to greatly accelerate the impact we can have on the communities we serve, the environment, and society as a whole.”

Honeywell recently committed to achieving carbon neutrality in its operations and facilities by 2035. It says approximately half of its new product introduction R&D investment is directed toward products improving environmental and social outcomes for customers.

Climate change considerations
According to Honeywell’s Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) from October 2021, which is pending critical review, recycled plastics produced via UpCycle Process Technology can result in a 57% reduction of CO2-equivalent (CO2e) emissions compared to the production of the same amount of virgin plastic from fossil feeds.

The LCA also found Honeywell’s process reduces CO2e emissions by 77% compared to conventional modes of handling waste plastic, such as incineration and landfilling. The company indicates these CO2e reductions represent some of the largest improvements in pyrolysis technology offerings.

“Plastics play an important role in our society, including expanding the shelf life of food and making vehicles lighter, which reduces their emissions. Unfortunately, only a fraction of plastics today can be successfully recycled,” comments Vimal Kapur, president and CEO of Honeywell Performance Materials and Technologies.According AMI International, advanced recycling could amount to between 5 and 15 million tons of additional plastic waste being recycled per year by 2030.

“Honeywell’s UpCycle process helps fix this problem. By broadening the types of plastic that can be recycled, UpCycle will revolutionize the plastics economy and play a critical role in improving the [environmental] sustainability of many of the products we use daily.”

Advanced tech propels recycling
According to a study published by AMI International in September 2020, waste plastics processed through advanced recycling technologies, such as UpCycle Process Technology, could amount to between 5 and 15 million tons of additional plastic waste being recycled per year by 2030.

Rabobank recently revealed advanced recycling continues to flourish in 2021, especially in Asia, despite criticism from NGOs and media reports challenging the cost-effectiveness and environmental performance of these technologies.

In related news, UK polymer technology company Bright Green Plastics recently announced it has developed an additive capable of breaking down flexible plastics without the need for complex sorting processes.

By Joshua Poole