A drop falls into the beaker, someone takes note. It is pyrolysis oil, produced by the reaction between the plastic flakes and the catalyst in the reactor of the laboratory that developed the chemical recycling process in the Giulio Natta research centre, inside the petrochemical plant in Ferrara, now the headquarters of the multinational LyondellBasell. The company inaugurated the first pilot plant with MoReTec technology (molecular recycling technology), which breaks down the molecules of post-consumer plastic, including multi-layered and mixed materials – so far unrecoverable – and produces pyrolysis oil, in fact. It will be used instead of virgin naphtha of fossil origin ¬ a product of petroleum refining ¬ to feed the process of steam cracking to obtain monomers such as ethylene and propylene, which are subsequently used to make new polymers.
The process allows the production of recycled plastic that can be reused in complex applications such as food packaging and biomedical. A border so far closed to secondary raw materials obtained from mechanical recycling.
In Wesseling, a 50,000-ton plant
«We started working on this project in Ferrara three years ago by putting a semi-industrial plant into operation with a treatment capacity of 50 tons of plastic material per year. Thanks to these studies, an industrial one of about 50 thousand tons per year will now be built at the LyondellBasel site in Wesseling, near Cologne, Germany: it will be operational from 2026. Our idea is to continue the studies to increase the production volume . A strong point of this technology is its scalability», explains Gabriele Mei, vice president of catalysis and industrial process and president of Basell Poliolefine Italia, who adds: «The location in Germany is linked to the presence on site of a crackerthat is, which uses pyrolysis oil obtained from chemical recycling to create new monomers and therefore new plastic».
Sustainability at the center
Italy, and the Ferrara hub, are at the center of the multinational’s development strategy, focused on the development of processes and products that contribute to the circular economy: «The need to address climate and circularity issues has never been so urgent, and during my first year at LyondellBasell, decisive actions were taken to advance our sustainability goals and to accelerate progress against existing commitments. We see opportunities to create value with our actions and are ready and prepared to unlock all the possibilities for a more sustainable and low-carbon future,” Peter Vanacker, CEO of the company that produced and marketed with its Circulen brand, since 2019, over 175 thousand tons of recycled polymers created from renewable sources and expects to reach at least 2 million tons by 2030.
50 million R&D budget
In this context, Ferrara’s work is fundamental: “The R&D budget in Italy for this year is around 50 million, 40% of the global total,” underlines Mei. One-third of LyondellBasell’s 6,000 patents originate here. «Of the approximately 700 R&D employees in the world, 400 are employed in Ferrara – over 900 total on the site – and about forty are those who have dedicated themselves to MoReTec», adds Antonio Mazzucco, director of the Giulio Natta research centre. And for 2023, the company expects around 90 hires in Italy, 80% of which in Ferrara.