Schneider Electric and Gr3n scale automated microwave-assisted depolymerization for “virgin-like” plastic

10 Sep 2024 --- Schneider Electric, a French energy management and automation specialist, has partnered with Gr3n, a PET chemical recycler, to create the “world’s first open automation system” for advanced plastic recycling.

Gr3n developed Made, a microwave-assisted depolymerization solution. This new process breaks down PET into its chemical building blocks that can be recombined to create new PET pellets with “virgin-like” quality for packaging and textiles, effectively closing the loop for hard-to-recycle plastic.

The technology is based on alkaline hydrolysis and can manage a higher amount of impurities compared to existing alternatives, the partners highlight.

Meanwhile, Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure Automation Expert platform plays a crucial role in enabling operational efficiencies at Gr3n’s recycling facilities. The system automates low-value engineering tasks while providing “rapid agility” to process changes.

The industrial automation system also “decouples hardware from software,” allowing devices and equipment to be freely connected across different facilities, regardless of the manufacturer. The “digital backbone” of operations allows its controls to be distributed or centralized depending on the need.

The system ensures Made is not held back by vendor lock-in or impacted by supply chain issues. Its vendor-independence allows controls to be distributed or centralized depending on the need.

“Through software-defined automation and hardware independence, we have been able to effectively de-risk our operations and push the boundaries of our technology,” says Fabio Silvestri, head of marketing and business development at Gr3n.

“We’ve been able to reconfigure our systems quickly when we see opportunities to improve efficiency, while avoiding supply chain issues due the hardware agnostic nature of the system. This is what is needed to make advanced plastic recycling a reality at scale.”

Industrial scale up

Global demand for plastics is expected to triple by 2060, with the amount of plastics in the ocean predicted to outweigh fish, highlights Schneider Electric.

In March, GR3N showcased Made alongside Schneider Electric’s open automation technology, EcoStruxure Automation Expert at its demonstration site in Italy. 

The Made plant was created ahead of the first industrial-scale facility, expected to be installed in Spain with an expected capacity of over 40,000 tons per year of treated PET waste. 

Overall, the Made system is said to reduce human error at the development stage by 40%, while cutting engineering costs by 30%.

The modularity of Gr3n’s proprietary recycling process has also allowed Made to be the first plastic recycling plant to use the shared automation runtime managed by Universal Automation, based on the IEC 61499 standard.

The solution is expected to reach industrial scale by 2027 with the construction of a 35–40 kta plant which will include the pre-treatment, depolymerization and repolymerization.

“Every year, people produce around 460 million tons of plastic, approximately 70% of which are sent to landfills or mismanaged,” says Christophe de Maistre, president Energy & Chemicals, Industrial Automation at Schneider Electric.

“If we want to overcome the scale of plastic waste, there are certain non-negotiables,” he stresses. “We must see integration across the whole product cycle, modularization to optimize and standardize engineering processes, as well as software defined automation solutions that delivers scalability, breaks siloes and acts as a gateway to advanced analytics.”

“This project with GR3N demonstrates all of these principles, improving flexibility, scalability and the efficiency of their solution and enabling them to grow to an industrial scale.”

By Benjamin Ferrer