Mura Technology scales UK next-gen plastic recycling system with Neste partnership
12 Mar 2024 --- Plastic recycling innovator Mura Technology has signed a product offtake agreement with Neste. Neste will convert ISCC PLUS accredited products from Mura’s first commercial-scale site in Teesside, UK, into feedstock to produce new plastics, replacing the need for fossil resources.
This first site is set to commence operations in mid-2024.
The agreement with Neste follows a previously announced offtake agreement with plastics manufacturing giant Dow.
“Our technology, soon to be deployed in our first-of-its-kind UK facility, has unlocked new value in plastic waste streams previously considered to be unrecyclable,” says Dr. Steve Mahon, CEO of Mura Technology.
“We look forward to working with the polymers industry around the world as we expand across the US, Europe and Asia.”
Taking recycling into next generation
Mura Technology’s HydroPRS process is branded a “next generation advanced plastic recycling” system due to its use of supercritical water (water under elevated pressure and temperature), which distinguishes it from alternative advanced recycling processes, such as pyrolysis.
HydroPRS ensures the “efficient and scalable” conversion of plastic waste to hydrocarbons for new plastics.
The system can process contaminated and mixed plastics, such as flexible and rigid food packaging, resulting in high yields of hydrocarbon products for use in the manufacture of virgin-quality, recycled plastics.
The HydroPRS system makes use of supercritical water to distinguish it from alternative recycling processes, such as pyrolysis.Through this process, Mura believes there is no limit to the number of times the same material can be recycled, alleviating industry’s reliance on fossil resources in plastic production.
The company expects this will “permanently increase” material circularity in the plastics industry, offering a route to recycle the hard-to-recycle materials.
Complementary to traditional recycling
The HydroPRS system is a complementary process designed to operate alongside traditional mechanical recycling, as highlighted in the 2023 technical report by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre.
The report also benchmarked Mura’s HydroPRS as the “best in class,” with a 50% lower carbon footprint compared to two pyrolysis technologies, helping end customers meet their net zero targets.
“At Neste, we will need increasing amounts of product derived from plastic waste and want to enable investments into the sector by providing a flexible offtake for our partners’ developing capacity,” comments Heikki Färkkilä, vice president of Chemical Recycling at Neste.
“Mura is helping provide scale to process large volumes of waste plastics into circular feedstocks to meet this demand.”
In other recent advancements, Packaging Insights explored how AI, data and robotics is transforming recycling against hard labor costs. In one case example, the use of Amazon-backed AI robotics is evolving mixed waste recycling processes.
Edited by Benjamin Ferrer
