“The Honeywell solution employs a modular approach to plant design, enabling a straightforward deployment and installation, while striking the right balance between economy of scale and amount of waste plastic generated locally, ” said Rick Perez, CEO, Avangard Innovative.
The present announcement follows Honeywell’s recent announcement of its intent to form a joint venture with Spain-based Sacyr to build an advanced recycling plant in Andalucía, in Southern Spain.
Like the proposed facility in Spain, this second plant, which will be located at Avangard’s NaturaPCR complex in Waller, Texas, will also have the capacity to process 30,000 tonnes of mixed waste plastics into Honeywell Recycled Polymer Feedstock per year. Production is expected to commence in 2023.
“Partnering with companies that have recycling and waste management experience allows Honeywell to help close the loop within the plastics supply chain by bringing the recycling technology onsite to the collection source,” said Vimal Kapur, president and chief executive officer of Honeywell Performance Materials and Technologies.
Asked about potential customers in the US who will be buying the feedstock produced from the process, Honeywell said it couldn't talk about future partnerships at this time.
Honeywell utilises its molecular conversion expertise and contaminants management technology to convert the waste plastic back to a recycled polymer feedstock with very low levels of contaminants.
When used in conjunction with other chemical and mechanical recycling processes, along with improvements to collection and sorting, studies suggest that Honeywell’s UpCycle Process Technology has the potential to increase the amount of plastic waste that can be recycled to 90% from only 15% today.
According to a life cycle analysis calculated by Honeywell, recycled plastics produced via UpCycle technology may result in a 57% reduction of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) emissions compared with the production of the same amount of virgin plastic from fossil feeds. The process also reduces CO2e emissions by 77% compared with conventional modes of handling waste plastic, such as incineration and landfilling.
In 2021, Honeywell committed to achieve carbon neutrality in its operations and facilities by 2035. The company has already reduced the greenhouse gas intensity of its operations and facilities by more than 90% since 2004. About half of Honeywell’s new product introduction research and development investment is directed toward products that improve environmental and social outcomes for customers. Honeywell’s UpCycle Process Technology was created within Honeywell’s Sustainable Technology Solutions (STS) business, which is part of Honeywell UOP.
