Slated to be operational by the end of 2022, the new facility will have an initial planned capacity to recycle 30,000 metric tonnes of plastic waste per annum
ExxonMobil is set to construct new plastic waste recycling facility in US. (Credit: H. Hach from Pixabay)
Energy company ExxonMobil has unveiled plans to construct a new large-scale plastic waste advanced recycling facility in Texas, US.
Located in Baytown, the company’s first recycling plant will facilitate the conversion of plastic waste into raw materials to produce plastic and other valuable products.
ExxonMobil stated that a smaller and temporary facility is already operational and producing commercial volumes of certified circular polymers that will be marketed by the end of this year.
Slated to be operational by the end of 2022, the new facility will have an initial planned capacity to recycle 30,000 metric tonnes of plastic waste per annum.
ExxonMobil Chemical president Karen McKee said: “We’ve proven our proprietary advanced recycling technology in Baytown, and we’re scaling up operations to supply certified circular polymers by year-end.
“Availability of reliable advanced recycling capacity will play an important role in helping address plastic waste in the environment, and we are evaluating wide-scale deployment in other locations around the world.”
The new facility is said to follow validation of the company’s initial trial of its process to convert plastic waste into raw materials.
The trial has successfully recycled over 1,000 metric tonnes of plastic waste and shown the capability of processing 50 metric tonnes per day, to date.
ExxonMobil aims to build around 500,000 metric tonnes of advanced recycling capacity across the globe over the next five years.
In Europe, the company is partnering with Plastic Energy to build an advanced recycling plant in Notre Dame de Gravenchon in France.
Once operational in 2023, the facility is expected to process 25,000 metric tonnes of plastic waste per annum. It will have the flexibility to further expand to 33,000 metric tonnes of annual capacity.
In addition, the firm is evaluating sites in the Netherlands, the US Gulf Coast, Canada, and Singapore.
ExxonMobil and Agilyx have created a joint venture called Cyclyx International to increase the collection and sorting of plastic waste.
The JV focuses on the development of advanced solutions to aggregate and pre-process large volumes of plastic waste, which can be converted into feedstocks for valuable products.