Pyrowave and Ineos enter into polystyrene recycling venture

Montreal-based Pyrowave and INEOS Styrolution America LLC, an Illinois-based subsidiary of London-based INEOS, have announced a partnership to support Pyrowave’s North American polystyrene (PS) recycling project.

The project is being set up to demonstrate the recyclability of postconsumer polystyrene packaging using Pyrowave’s catalytic microwave depolymerization (CMD) technology. The project will Involve “various actors from the value chain of the polystyrene industry,” the two companies indicate, with INEOS being the first manufacturer to join the consortium.

“We are very excited to collaborate with Pyrowave in this project,” says Ricardo Cuetos, vice president of standard products at INEOS Styrolution America. “At INEOS Styrolution, we are committed to exploring ways toward a circular economy. Polystyrene is a too valuable [of a] material to end up in landfills. Pyrowave’s North American project is a significant component in our efforts to recycle polystyrene taking advantage of innovative technologies,” adds Cuetos.

Pyrowave states that its principal advantage is the modularity of its technology, which is intended to be installed and operated at existing sorting facilities, similar to other recycling equipment. Its microwave technology is intended to operate at commercial scale and generate “high yields of monomers with very low energy consumption,” according to the firm.

Pyrowave spent three years testing the technology on postconsumer PS scrap and is now operating what it calls a “full scale” machine in Montreal. Pyrowave’s next phase is to deploy units in the field and demonstrate its business model with companies within the PS use and recycling chain.

“We are extremely pleased to announce the support of INEOS Styrolution in the project as it shows strong leadership from the polystyrene industry, [which] wants to improve the life cycle of polymer products,” says Jocelyn Doucet, CEO of Pyrowave. “We believe that plastics are meant to stay in our modern world and to continue delivering broad span benefits during their use phase. However, this must include end-of-life-solutions. We believe the future of plastic is circular. Our technology combined with the support of the industry will help improve our world’s resource efficiency for the good of future generations,” adds Doucet.

Pyrowave describes itself as a pioneer in CMD techniques for discarded plastics, a microwave technology that unzips plastics back into their initial constituents. The process is designed to create a range of end products from PS scrap, such as recycled wax, oil and monomers.

INEOS Styrolution describes itself as a leading, global styrene products supplier with a focus on styrene monomer, PS, ABS Standard and styrene-related specialties. The company provides styrene products to several industry sectors, including the automotive, electronics, construction, health care and packaging sectors. INEOS Styrolution employs approximately 3,200 people and operates 16 production sites in nine countries.