neste

Neste, Alterra and Technip Energies have launched a project that offers a standardized, modular solution for building chemical recycling plants.

This solution will come in the form of readily designed and engineered liquefaction plant modules, which the companies claim will allow for lower pre-investment costs, accelerated implementation time, high predictability on project economics, and reduced overall capital costs.

Alterra’s technology is a thermochemical liquefaction process, which converts hard-to-recycle plastics into a liquid hydrocarbon product. This liquid intermediate product can then be further refined into high-quality raw materials for new plastics and chemicals.

As of today, Neste says that it has processed more than 6,000 tons of plastic-derived feeds, including ISCC PLUS certified oil from Alterra’s industrial-scale site in Akron, Ohio.

Alterra and Neste started collaborating on chemical recycling in 2021, while Alterra and Technip Energies began working on chemical recycling-related solutions in 2022.

In this new project, Alterra and Neste will license the liquefaction technology and Technip Energies will design, engineer and deliver the standardized liquefaction plant solution to interested parties globally.

“We have a proven technology for liquefaction that encompasses 15 years of research, development and improvement,” says Frederic Schmuck, Chief Executive Officer at Alterra Energy. “Now we are reducing the hurdles for companies interested in investing in liquefaction. We are ultimately enabling a copy-paste solution for liquefaction plants, allowing for a fast scale-up of economically viable recycling capacities globally.”

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