Teesside-based px Group, the owner of Saltend Chemicals Park in Hull and operator of several energy infrastructure sites in the UK and Europe, has been awarded a 10-year Operations & Maintenance (O&M) contract by ReNew ELP, a subsidiary of Mura Technology Ltd. ReNew ELP is building the world’s first commercial scale plastic recycling plant at the Wilton International site, in Teesside, North East England based on Mura’s HydroPRS technology platform to chemically recycle end-of-life plastic.
The HydroPRS process uses supercritical water to break down post-consumer plastics into a range of valuable liquid hydrocarbon products including naphtha, gas oils and heavy wax residue. Unlike mechanical recycling, there is potentially no limit to the number of times plastic can be recycled using this process. Moreover, all types of plastic waste are suitable for processing using the technology, including difficult to recycle material such as composite films.
At the plant, some 20,000 tonnes of waste plastic will annually be processed during phase 1 of operations. The site has the scope and planning permission for additional processing lines, which would take its processing capability to over 80,000 tonnes per year.
The contract, which will directly lead to the creation of around 30 new highly skilled jobs on the site, is scheduled to begin before the end of the year, to coincide with the completion of the construction phase of the project at the Wilton International site.
Neil Chapman, Commercial Director at px Group will lead the project on behalf of px Group and will work closely with the Renew ELP leadership team at its ground-breaking plant. “We take pride in applying our ‘owner-operator’ approach to each and every site we’re based at - that means we treat every asset as if it were our own,” he said.
ReNew Elp selected px group because of its first-rate track record of managing some of the UK’s most important energy and industrial sites, with an exemplary safety record, said Richard Daley, managing director at ReNew ELP.
“We look forward to working with px Group and the team on-site as we demonstrate the commercial performance of HydroPRS and expand our technological offering around the world.”