Page 71 - Plastics News Issue June 2025
P. 71
PRODUCT NEWS
cinerating its feedstock, instead reforming it into transformation facility,” Nienhauser adds.
fuels.
The problem of plastic pollution
Many pyrolysis facilities produce a liquid oil with
a high heating value which resembles conven- With the increased consumption and urbanisa-
tional diesel. This product can be used to power tion of our society comes more plastic waste.
vehicles and machinery after it is refined and Around 12 million tonnes of plastic makes its
blended with conventional fuels. As such, fuels way into the world’s oceans every year. Envi-
produced through pyrolysis could offer a lower ronmentalists and NGOs are calling for better
carbon solution for hard-to-abate industries. waste management of plastics. Currently, 9% of
plastics are recycled and an additional 22% are
Stellar 3 has developed a pyrolysis process mismanaged. Much of the plastic we used is cur-
which can recycle plastics including PVC. “PVC rently either heads to landfill or the oceans.
is typically avoided because it has a chlorine in Pyrolysis has the potential to increase the de-
it, so we have designed, developed and built a
chlorine extraction pre-pyrolysis unit. What that mand for second-life plastics turning them into
does is it keeps the plastic to a temperature that a useful product. However, while pyrolysis of-
where the plastic is still liquid, and then the chlo- fers a potential waste solution critics argue that
rine evaporates, that chlorine is captured and it is not the fix-all green solution for both plastic
condensed into a 30% hydrochloric acid into a waste and fossil fuel use.
special container, and then the rest of the plastic How green is pyrolysis?
goes through the regular pyrolysis process”.
Producing a fuel from a hydrocarbon product
Local energy production means that when that product is burned, it will
produce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse
For Nienhauser one of the major benefits of py-
rolysis technology is that the plants are small gases. As such, they can only reduce emissions
enough to accommodate fuel production on from their suppliers, not their consumers. Syn-
a local level which is then transported in liquid thetic fuels that make use of pre-existing oil and
form. Stellar 3 builds facilities which take in 30 gas infrastructure could also delay the infrastruc-
tonnes of waste material per day, the equivalent ture overhaul need to transform our energy sys-
plastic waste production of 250,000 people per tem. Detractors argue that whether it is oil and
day. gas pipelines or vehicle engines, at some point
our infrastructure and technologies will have to
Alongside others globally, the company man- change.
ages a processing facility located in the Philip-
pines. “Because of the island location, one of the Additionally, pyrolysis is not a perfect science.
challenges is that you don’t have extra room for When producing a product from waste, it is dif-
landfill. So, once it’s filled, you put extra plastic ficult to ensure the exact same product every
on the top of the landfill, and it rolls down into a time when the input material varies. Critics say
river that ends up in an ocean. Our objective by that given the variety in plastic types, in reality
2030 is to have the capacity to take 500 tonnes only a fraction of it is recycled effectively in py-
of landfill waste per day and use it in a waste rolysis.
June 2025 PLASTICS NEWS 71
