MOSCOW (MRC) -- Borealis says it has invested EUR6 million (USD7.1 million) in the upgrade of a wastewater treatment system at its integrated production facility in Schwechat, Austria, to further reduce the risk of plastics spillage or loss, said Chemweek.
The new filtration system, installed in November last year, is now fully operational and is part of the company’s sustainability measures to achieve zero plastic pellet loss throughout its operations and facilities, as well as across the entire supply chain. Regular internal monitoring of wastewater flows ensures that emissions always remain within stringent regulatory parameters, Borealis says. Borealis produces around 1 million metric tons/year of polyolefins at its Schwechat plant.
The company’s engineers worked with scientists from the Technische Universitat Wien (TU Wien) and Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) in Austria to find novel ways to measure the presence of plastic matter in wastewater, before proceeding to design and custom-build its own new systems for removing such matter. The system is able to filter a broad range of particle sizes of total suspended solids, from several millimeters down to extremely fine, low micrometer range, it says.
"The equipment is installed downstream from existing polymer separators and acts as an additional layer of protection,” Borealis says. Further learnings from the development and study of the filtration system will be leveraged at all its production locations to further improve operations, as well as across its whole value chain, it adds.
"The purification capabilities we had in place in Schwechat were already good, but the upgraded system boasts a level of sophistication that is leading in all of Europe’s plastics industry," says Borealis CEO Alfred Stern. “Innovating for more sustainable living together with our partners in science and making substantial investments in such upgrades enhances our operational excellence. We intend to deliver on our commitment to reducing plastics loss in order to achieve our "Goal Zero’ of no losses whatsoever."
As per MRC, OMV, the international integrated oil and gas company headquartered in Vienna and Mubadala Investment Company, the Abu Dhabi-based strategic investment company, completed the transaction for OMV to acquire an additional 39% stake in Borealis, a leading, global chemicals company, from Mubadala.
Furthermore, OMV and Borealis will jointly expand their know-how and activities in the plastics circular economy. Borealis’ activities in plastics recycling, through its subsidiaries EcoPlast (Austria) and mtm plastics (Germany), Project STOP (Ocean Waste) and the Design For Recycling (DFR) initiative are a perfect addition to OMV’s ReOil technology for the chemical recycling of post-consumer-plastic. The proprietary ReOil® technology converts hard-to-recycle plastic waste into high-quality feedstock for its refineries, substituting the need crude oil.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing PE and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,496,500 tonnes in the first eight months of 2020, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of all ethylene polymers increased, except for linear low desnity polyethylene (LLDPE). At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 767,2900 tonnes in the eight months of 2020 (calculated using the formula - production minus exports plus imports - and not counting producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply increased exclusively of PP random copolymer.
MRC