Fortum Recycling and Waste have been granted 6 million SEK from the Swedish Energy Agency to carry out a feasibility study on chemical recycling of plastics. The study would define the technical requirements for the pre-treatment of plastics, quality control, and the sourcing of suitable materials. The feasibility study will test and evaluate which plastic waste streams and sorting methods are suitable for cost-effectively producing a CO2-neutral recycled raw material for the plastics industry.
- Waste will increasingly become new raw materials in all sectors. Significant proportions of plastics are today difficult to recycle. With the help of chemical recycling, the goal is to increase that proportion sharply and the feasibility study we now have been granted support to from the Swedish Energy Agency aims to produce CO2-neutral raw material for Boreali's plastics recycling refinery, says Johanna d´Annibale, Manager Strategy Portfolio & Projects Fortum Recycling & Waste.
The feasibility study's total budget is 12 million SEK, which means that the Swedish Energy Agency finances fifty percent. There are great ambitions and goals at EU level to increase the recycling rate of plastic. We need more than today's mechanical recycling of plastics to achieve these goals, so investments in new recycling methods and technologies to enable recycling of the mixed plastic fractions that today cannot be mechanically recycled are necessary to achieve the climate goals.
The goal - a facility in operation by 2024
Borealis and Fortum Recycling & Waste have started a collaboration with the goal of building the first chemical plastics recycling refinery in Sweden. Fortum's role in the collaboration is to analyze various plastic fractions which currently cannot be recycled in order to produce the optimal raw material for the chemical recycling that Borealis aims to establish in Stenungsund on the West Coast of Sweden. This integration between waste management and processing in direct connection to a cracker plant would then be the first of its kind. The business is planned to start in 2024.
Read more about the collaboration project with Borealis here.