Anellotech has produced drum quantities of aromatics produced from recycled mixed waste plastics. The company is offering the recycled benzene, toluene and xylenes (BTX) as samples to current and potential commercial partners.
The aromatics are the outcome of the company’s ongoing studies demonstrating Anellotech’s Plas-TCat catalytic pyrolysis technology, and produced at its fully automated, 30-meter-tall pilot plant located inside Trecora’s Silsbee, Texas facility.
“Anellotech can offer BTX samples made directly from mixed waste plastics to potential commercial partners to encourage engagement with our program,” says David Sudolsky, President and CEO of Anellotech. He noted that in contrast to thermal pyrolysis, Plas-TCat makes BTX and other chemicals in one reactor, providing true 100-percent recycled BTX without having to resort to a mass balance approach ‘for studies today and eventual future commercial use’.
Based on a proprietary catalyst and fluid bed reactor- regenerator system, Plas-TCat provides a new, direct route to light olefins and aromatics from plastic waste streams. The system can operate 24/7 and converts a representative mixed waste plastics feedstock — polyolefins, polyamides (nylon), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polycarbonate and polystyrene, but not PVC - into BTX, light olefins and paraffins, without the need for steam cracker furnaces.
The resulting output of benzene, toluene and xylenes, as well as ethylene, propylene and butylene (light olefins), are suitable after separation for plastics manufacturers to produce a wide range of virgin plastics.