Chemical company Versalis is launching the aptly named Hoop project, aimed at the development of a new technology to chemically recycle plastic waste, the company has announced. Versalis, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Italian oil supermajor Eni, has signed a joint development agreement for Hoop - a circle as the symbol of circularity - with an Italian engineering company, Servizi di Ricerche e Sviluppo (S.R.S.).
The company is seeking to develop a chemical recycling technology that complements its current mechanical recycling technology. The Hoop project aims to create a theoretically endless plastic recycling process, said Daniele Ferrari, Versalis’ CEO.
S.R.S. owns a pyrolysis technology that will be further developed to transform mixed plastic waste, that cannot be mechanically recycled, into raw material to produce new virgin polymers.
Versalis will leverage its technological and industrial expertise to build a first plant with a capacity of 6,000 tonnes per year at the Mantova site, with a view to progressively scaling-up, starting from its sites in Italy.