Page 47 - Plastics News Issue November - 2024
P. 47
BUSINESS NEWS
Alterra investment is latest
LyondellBasell recycling move
ducer of polyolefins as well as in-
termediate chemicals and is equally
owned by refiners Chevron and
Phillips 66.
Shifting LyondellBasell strategy
Houston-based LyondellBasell has
been aggressively investing in both
mechanical and chemical recycling
capacity across the globe, all while
divesting its intermediate chemical
assets, as it pursues vertical inte-
gration for its circular polymers.
Earlier this month, LyondellBasell
hemical majors LyondellBasell and Chev- announced it had closed the pur-
ron Phillips Chemical have invested an chase of German recycler APK AG. The compa-
Cundisclosed amount in recycling tech- ny plans to build more plants and to further de-
nology company Alterra to help commercialize velop the solvent-based technology to process
chemical recycling technology for plastics. LDPE.
Finnish oil refiner Neste also was among the in- In September, LyondellBasell began construc-
vestors, according to a press release. tion of its first commercial-scale chemical recy-
cling plant at its existing site in Wesseling, Ger-
Alterra’s plant in Akron, Ohio, uses a thermal liq-
uefaction process to break down plastic poly- many. The plant is expected to start up in 2026
and will be fed with mixed plastics sorted at its
mers to their molecular building blocks to be
used as feedstock for more plastics. new integrated recycling hub in Knapsack, Ger-
many, which is expected to start up in Q1 2026.
In early 2023, Alterra signed a licensing agree- The company this year also has acquired recy-
ment with Freepoint Eco-Systems Holdings to
put its technology in a chemical recycling facil- cling assets in California from PreZero, sold its
ethylene oxide and derivatives assets to chemi-
ity on the Gulf Coast with a capacity of 192,000
metric tons per year. Shell has exclusive rights to cal intermediates producer Ineos Oxides and
opened a plastics recycling joint venture with
the resulting feedstock for making virgin-quality
polymers. Genox Recycling in China.
And in early 2023, LyondellBasell signed a long-
Texas-headquartered CPChem is a global pro-
term supply agreement from Nexus Circular to
November 2024 PLASTICS NEWS 47
