MoReTec chemical recycling plant in Wesseling
Just before Fakuma, LYB laid the foundation stone for its MoReTec chemical recycling plant in Wesseling, Germany. The ceremony took place in the presence of Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The industrial-scale facility is expected to have an annual capacity of 50,000 tonnes and is designed to recycle the amount of plastic packaging waste generated by over 1.2 million German citizens per year. Construction is planned to be completed by the end of 2025 with start-up expected in 2026.
LYB is investing a three-digit million euro sum in Wesseling. It says the plant will be the first commercial scale, single-train advanced recycling plant to convert post-consumer plastic waste into feedstock for production of new plastic materials that can be ran at net zero greenhouse gas emissions.
“This plant is very important for several reasons,” van der Laan said. “It shows that as a company, we’ve taken that [investment] decision ahead of the final text on chemical recycling and mass balance in the PPWR. What is also telling is that the European Innovation Fund granted us €40 million already last year. And the speech of the Chancellor, which has publicised in many media, is also stressing the political support for investments like this and how important they are for the chemical cluster in Germany.”
Ahead of the MoReTec ceremony, sources told Sustainable Plastics that the German government has argued with the European Commission in favour of a ‘pragmatic approach’ to the use of recyclate quotas for single-use beverage bottles. The statement hints at Germany’s favourable position towards recognition of mass balance, and therefore chemical recycling, in allocating recycled content in the Single Use Plastics Directive. Sources also revealed that the German government plans to implement this ‘pragmatic approach’ in its National Circular Economy Strategy, due to be adopted this year.
Mass balance
When asked if LYB is confident that chemical recycling will count towards recycled content targets in the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), van der Laan did not hesitate.
“Yes – that’s clear.”
“It is also clear from very important EU member states like Germany,” she continued. “This needs to be finalized and also transposed into the Single Use Plastics Directive.”
van der Laan is confident ‘we will get there’, despite not being able to predict an exact time for recognition of the mass balance fuel-exempt method for recycled content allocation.
In mass balance, a certified volume of recycled or renewable material is input across a production run but may not be evenly distributed across each individual product output. Using the mass balance method allows economic operators to state that they use a certain percentage of recycled or renewable material in their products, without having to prove that each individual product produced has that percentage of recycled or renewable material.
Given that pyrolysis oil is blended with virgin feedstocks in a cracker, and that the two feedstocks cannot be physically separated once co-fed, many argue that recognising mass balance is essential for allocating recycled content via this chemical recycling technology.
The fact that the PPWR was only approved a couple of months before the new European Commission was elected will delay the potential recognition of mass balance further. It remains to be seen how the new Directorial General (DG) Environment will address the issue – but some hints have already been dropped. Shortly after the European elections in early June, Werner Bosmans, Team Leader on Plastics, DG Environment, at the European Commission said at the Plastics Recycling Show Europe (PRSE) that a ‘vast majority’ of member states are in favour of mass balance.
He added that DG Environment is considering an amendment to the Single Use Plastics Directive that introduces controlled blending and fuel-exempt mass balance accounting with third-party verification. A public consultation is expected to be launched ‘soon’.
Fully committed to European recycling
The MoReTec and Lich plants are just two of the many recycling investments LyondellBasell has been making in Europe. It has also announced the acquisition of Germany, Merseburg-based, plastics recycler APK.
LYB views APK’s solvent-based plastic recycling technology as a ‘perfect fit’ for its mechanical and chemical recycling technologies. APK's patented technology allows plastic waste, such as multi-layer packaging materials, to be processed into high-quality LDPE recyclates.
“We see APK's solvent based recycling technology as a vital addition and complementary to our existing and future mechanical and advanced recycling operations,” van der Laan said.
“This is an important further step toward reaching our goal to produce and market at least 2 million tonnes of recycled and renewable based polymers annually by 2030,” she added. That commitment has recently earned LYB the top place in BloombergNEF’s 2024 Circular Economy Company Ranking, classifying it as the best plastic producer for circularity ambition.
All such pledges and investments show that LYB is ‘fully committed’ to European recycling, van der Laan said, despite earlier this year announcing a strategic review of its European assets in the olefins, polyolefins, and chemical intermediates and derivatives business units.
LYB’s CEO Peter Vanacker said in May that the review would encompass a potential retreat from Europe, with options including selling assets, investing in plant improvements, restructuring, and closing facilities.
“The scope and context of that review is no different than earlier communicated,” van der Laan said.
The company’s concerns about Europe’s competitiveness are shared by many others. van der Laan referenced the Antwerp Declaration for a European Industrial Deal as an example. The declaration was presented by 73 business leaders spanning 17 sectors to the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in February this year. It rang alarm bells that Europe’s industries are facing the worst economic downturn in a decade at a period when investments are needed to achieve Europe’s transition to climate neutrality.
“It's a tough environment with high energy prices and no feedstock advantages in general,” van der Laan explained. “So that is the context in which LYB is doing this review, we are looking at this context and deciding where we want to grow.”
“And it’s clear that we see our future in Europe in circular and low carbon solutions,” she stated.
That is why LYB considers the Cologne area – where the Wesseling plant sits – to be at the heart of its commitment to Europe and the transition to circular and low carbon solutions.
“We will grow in these aspects, but it will also mean that in other aspects, where we need to compete with other regions with cheap feedstocks and low energy prices, that we will look at that and make our own portfolio decisions, just as our peers have done and are doing,” van der Laan concluded.
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