Page 62 - Plastics News March 2026
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TECHNOLOGY NEWS
tion of the traditional recycling to the integrated Thermal Technologies Turning Plastic Waste
recycling technologies is not only a compliance into Fuel
strategy but also a growth potential. Firms are
investing in modular recycling plants, decentral- The technologies of converting plastic waste
ized waste-to-fuel plants and refinery-based into fuel focus on thermal conversion systems.
conversion plants taking advantage of plastic Such systems are pyrolysis, catalytic cracking,
waste to act as a hydrocarbon feedstock. hydrothermal liquefaction, and technologies
based on plasma.
Chemical Recycling of Plastics: From Waste to
Feedstock Pyrolysis plants which convert waste to fuel use
mixed plastic waste which is subjected to ther-
Chemical recycling of plastics can be described mal modification to produce liquid fuels, gases
as those processes that degrade polymers to and char. The liquid portion can be refined to
monomers, oligomers or hydrocarbon fractions diesel, gasoline or marine fuel mixtures. This
which can be recycled into petrochemical syn- method is especially appealing in the areas
thesis. In contrast to mechanical recycling which where the infrastructure on waste management
keeps polymer chains, chemical recycling breaks is not developed yet the demand in fuel is high.
down plastics to molecular building blocks.
Catalytic cracking is efficient because it reduces
Depolymerization, solvolysis, pyrolysis, and gas- reaction temperatures and increases the qual-
ification are the processes that are becoming ity of fuel yield. There are other advanced facili-
popular in industries. One of the most commer- ties which include continuous reactors with real
cially feasible technologies of converting plastic time monitoring systems so that output would
wastes has been pyrolysis. It consists of heat- be constant and scales industrial.
ing of plastic waste in an airtight atmosphere to
generate pyrolysis oil that can be refined to fu- Converting plastic waste into power and fuel as
els or petrochemical feedstocks. a B2B has several sources of monetization. Py-
rolysis oil can be used as an alternative to petro-
Plastic waste is transformed into synthesis gas chemical feedstock by companies to sell recov-
and this is a mixture of hydrogen and carbon ered fuels, use them as part of industrial boilers,
monoxide through gasification and can be used or as a byproduct as pyrolysis oil.
to produce methanol, ammonia or synthetic fu-
els. These waste to fuel processes are compat- Advanced Plastic Upcycling Methods for High-
ible with refinery and petrochemical plants, and Value Applications
they can be used in conjunction with the already Plastic upcycling transcends recycling with ad-
existing industrial facilities.
ditional value or performance of the recovered
For manufacturers, chemical recycling allows material. More sophisticated upcycling tech-
them to make virgin-grade polymers using re- niques include the use of waste plastics into
cycled material and contribute to the cause of specialty chemicals, performance materials or
the circular economy without reducing the per- composite engineered materials.
formance of the product.
62 PLASTICS NEWS March 2026
