MOSCOW (MRC) -- Braskem and Encina Development Group (Encina; The Woodlands, Texas) have agreed to develop a long-term relationship aimed at establishing a supply of circular propylene feedstock from Encina’s planned new post-consumer plastics recycling plant in the US, reported Chemweek.
Encina plans to break ground on the facility in the second half of 2021, although the location has not yet been given. Once completed, the plant will process 175,000 metric tons/year of waste plastic into over 90,000 metric tons/year of recycled chemicals, the companies say in a joint statement. The facility will be designed to have its capacity expanded to 350,000 metric tons/year of waste plastic in future phases, they say. It will leverage Encina’s proprietary technology that converts mixed plastics to chemicals via catalytic pyrolysis.
Braskem will work with Encina to develop the necessary logistics, product quality, and certifications for the recycled propylene feedstock that Braskem will then use in the production of recycled polypropylene (PP) materials in applications such as food packaging, consumer, and hygiene products, according to the companies. Braskem and Encina intend to develop a formal supply agreement prior to the project’s financing approval in 2021, they say.
Encina said in July it was planning to build a USD255-million facility for the conversion of waste plastic to benzene, toluene, and xylene (BTX), with other additional plants in the pipeline, and a possible IPO within the next two years.
“Encina’s technology and this important project will divert thousands of tons of hard-to-recycle plastic from landfills. As the North American leader in polypropylene, Braskem is actively looking to purchase sustainable propylene feedstock that will allow us to increase both recycled and renewable-sourced products in our portfolio,” says Braskem Americas CEO Mark Nikolich. The agreement will help Braskem’s clients to meet their aggressive recycled content goals in the years ahead, he says.
Braskem, a founding member of the Polypropylene Recycling Coalition formed earlier this year, recently announced sales targets for growing its recycled products portfolio to 300,000 metric tons/year by 2025 and 1 million metric tons/year by 2030. It is also a founding member of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste.
As MRC reported previously, Brazilian petrochemical producer Braskem's 450,000 mt/year PP plant in LaPorte, Texas, along the Houston Ship Channel completed its initial commercial production, as per the company's statement as of Sept. 10. "The launch of commercial production at our new world-class PP production line in La Porte clearly affirms Braskem's position as the North American polypropylene market leader," Braskem America CEO Mark Nikolich said in a statement. With a USD750 million investment, the new PP plant's construction started in October 2017 and was completed in June, 2020.
We remind that production at Braskem's new PP plant in the US was at 36,000 tonnes in October, close to the monthly production capacity of the plant of around 38,000 tonnes.
Braskem operates five other US PP plants in Texas, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, with a cumulative capacity of 1.57 million mt/year that the company acquired. The new plant in La Porte, Texas, is Braskem America's first PP new build.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 978,870 tonnes in January-October 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports minus producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.
Braskem S.A. produces petrochemicals and generates electricity. The Company produces ethylene, propylene, benzene, toluene, xylenes, butadiene, butene, isoprene, dicyclopentediene, MTBE, caprolactam, ammonium sulfate, cyclohexene, polyethylene theraphtalat, polyethylene, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC).