Polypropylene recycler PureCycle Technologies LLC has cleared another hurdle — arguably the biggest one, according to the company's CEO — to build its first overseas plant.
Orlando, Fla.-based PureCycle has signed a detailed joint venture agreement with chemical and resins company SK Geo Centric to build a plastic recycling plant using solvent-based technology to clean used PP to create virginlike resin.
Construction of the new plant in Ulsan, South Korea, is still subject to one final step where both sides will work to specifically identify the final costs of the project, PureCycle CEO Dustin Olson said during an Oct. 21 news conference at K 2022.
"It really gives us our first entrée in to Asia, which is obviously a big and growing market," he said.
"With SK we have really been able to accelerate forward throughout the process. SK is really a visionary company as well. They see where the world is going from a sustainability perspective. They are building a really nice ecosystem for how to solve this problem holistically. And they are very good technically," Olson said.
"For us they are a very natural partner for us to get started in Asia with because they check all the boxes for us," he added.
"The relationship with SK is beyond just the capacity. It's technical support. It's a global collaboration. It's an entry into Asia that should result in more and more and more in Asia. And it's a partnership over the last year and a half where we developed a lot of trust in one another," Olson said.
The PureCycle CEO talked about the new definitive agreement with SK during a press conference to discuss a separate collaboration with Milliken & Co., which has a plastics additives division.
Milliken created a new additive specifically for PureCycle's recycled PP to improve clarity, and the chemical company now hopes to market Millad NX 8000 Eco to other recyclers as well. Milliken has been a longtime collaborator with PureCycle as the company builds facilities and prepares to launch commercial operations.
"I would say that this partnership works because Milliken had [the] vision in the beginning to see how a process like this could really change the game of plastic recycling. Milliken had depth in order to support us from a technical perspective very well. And I think both companies were open-minded to partner together in order to just try to find something new and better," Olson said.
Transparency of recycled resin has always been an issue when it comes to mechanically recycled resin, said Wim Van de Velde, global vice president for plastic additives at Milliken.
"The limitations around both food contact and transparency have always been a big issue," he said. "If we can fix that problem, well that's going to be a big deal.
"We truly believe in this technology. We also believe it's going to part of the solution for a big problem out there," he said about PureCycle.
PureCycle's first plant, in Ironton, Ohio, expects to begin operations during this year's fourth quarter or next year's first quarter and ramp up from there, Olson said. The firm also has announced plans for a second site in Augusta, Ga.
PureCycle expects the facility in South Korea will take about two years to construct and come online some time in 2025. The final financial details will take the next several months to work out, the company said. Olson declined to provide an estimated cost of the facility.
PureCycle uses a solvent-based approach that strips used PP down to original form prior to the introduction of additives, colorants, fillers and contaminants. The technology originally was created by consumer goods company Procter & Gamble Co.