With the addition of two new production lines at Synova, the recycling plant acquired by TotalEnergies in 2019, the company has more than doubled the production of recycled polypropylene at the Normandy, France-based plant.
Synova is the leading producer of mechanically recycled high-performance polypropylene for the automotive industry in France. Waste derived from post-industrial sources, household waste and car parts such as bumpers are all processed at the plant.
Prior to the investment in the two new line, some 20,000 tons of recycled PP were produced annually. Since the opening of the new capacity, this has risen to almost 45,000 tons, including a grade containing fibre glass, targeted at the production of components boasting a very high mechanical performance.
Recycling is an area in which TotalEnergies is active in various ways. Next to producing its recycled Circular Compounds, i.e., polypropylene and polyethylene containing at least 50% recycled material, with the same properties as virgin grade polymers, the company has also joined forces with Citeo, Saint-Gobain and Syndifrais to create a polystyrene recycling channel in France. The feasibility of large-scale production will be validated at the Group’s industrial sites in Carling (France) and Feluy (Belgium).
Moreover, the Group announced plans in 2020 to build its first chemical recycling plant based on technology developed and patented by Plastic Energy patented technology, at its zero-crude site at Grandpuits. The technology converts unrecyclable plastic waste into a pyrolysis oil called Tacoil, which will then be used as feedstock in TotalEnergies' steam crackers to produce polymers with properties identical to virgin polymers.
Also at Grandpuits, a second bio-based plastic production plant is currently under construction. The first, the Total Corbion PLA joint venture in Thailand has a capacity of 75,000 tons per year of polylactic acid (PLA); this second plant second plant will have a capacity of 100,000 tons/year.
Together with the doubling of capacity at the Synova plant, TotalEnergies is therefore ‘perfectly positioned to meet our customers' growing demand for more efficient and environmentally friendly polymers, all the while providing concrete answers to the challenge of managing end-of-life plastics’ according to Valérie Goff, Senior Vice President Polymers at TotalEnergies' Refining & Chemicals. “This investment will contribute to our ambition for 2030 of producing 30% recycled and renewable polymers,” she said.