A year after launching its mass-balanced bio-based polyacetal material, POM Eco-B, Celanese Corporation now working on a new sustainable polyacetal product. To be called POM Eco-R, Celanese is collaborating with Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials (MCAM) on the development of mechanically recycled POM solutions.
Celanese and MCAM plan to work together to assess options to convert post-industrial and post-consumer sources of polyoxymethylene waste streams into marketable, end-product formulations. Celanese aims to be able to provide its customers with sustainable options for scrap or end-of-life waste with assurances of closed-loop material reuse. The intention is to create a line of recycled-content POM materials offering a smaller carbon footprint yet maintaining the same product consistency, quality and performance.
While the use of POM Eco-B also enables customers to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in their end-use products, not all customers or industries are ready to adopt the bio-mass balance approach this involves. POM Eco-B is certified International Sustainability and Carbon Certification Plus (ISCC+).
For that reason, Celanese has teamed up with MCAM, to develop a product with mechanically recycled content that will better meet the needs of these customers.
“Offering both bio-based POM content, which can be uniquely produced from waste products via bio-methane or from CO2 emissions, and recycled POM through a collaboration with MCAM, elevates the broad usability of POM as an ideal engineered material that can help our customers meet and achieve their sustainability goals,” said Tom Kelly, Celanese Senior Vice President, Engineered Materials.
MCAM is to be tasked with conducting the recycled feedstock collection, separation, and processing, while Celanese is to be responsible for providing the formulation, product technology and production capability.
MCAM has invested significantly in enabling closed-loop opportunities for post-industrial and post-consumer POM waste streams. The partnership with Celanese will now allow it to offer a wide range of new opportunities to our customers to achieve their own sustainability goals, said Markus Wehinger, Business Manager, MCAM Recycling Solutions.
Celanese expects to offer to existing and new customers its POM Eco-R solution with a recycled content offering of up to 30 percent.