Ineos Inovyn is commissioning two new pilot plants at its Jemeppe-sur-Sambre site in Belgium.
 

As the european PVC market leader Ineos Inovyn, which is part of the British chemicals group Ineos, has announced that the plants will be used to further develop technologies for recycling PVC waste that cannot yet be mechanically recycled. This is said to be part of the strategic initiative "Project Circle", which aimed to make mechanically non-recyclable PVC waste recyclable and to put an industrial plant with a recycling capacity of 40,000 tons into operation by 2030. According to Ineos Inovyn, "Project Circle" is a cross-company recycling initiative involving partners from the entire PVC value chain. As a first step, the two new pilot plants in Jemeppe-sur-Sambre, where Ineos Inovyn's main Research & Development center is located, have now been put into operation. In the plants, Ineos Inovyn is reportedly using technological experience from the PVC recycling project Vinyloop™ from 2002 to 2018. Using chemical recycling processes to be tested, such as pyrolysis and gasification, additives such as stabilizers and plasticizers are also to be extracted from the various PVC applications. In Europe as a whole, around 30 percent of PVC waste was currently recycled. Geir Tuft, CEO of Ineos Inovyn, explains: "PVC is one of the most recycled polymers in Europe, but achieving a fully circular economy remains a complex challenge for our industry. Project Circle is an ambitious step towards developing advanced new solutions and supporting the green transition in Europe." As part of Project Circle, Ineos Inovyn has also joined two Belgian consortia: "CIRC-PVC" is said to cover the entire chain, from the collection of PVC waste on construction sites to the production of PVC from chemical recycling without old additives; "DISSOLV" aimed to drive technological development for PVC waste such as floor coverings, carpets and tarpaulin applications that cannot be recycled today due to the textile fibers and old additives they contain.
 
Sources:

• Press release Ineos Inovyn (16.6.2024)
• Photo: © Ineos Inovyn