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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - cPET (Tackling the global plastic waste issue, by upcycling no value streams into 100% virgin material and enabling new plastic circular economy)

Teaser

Summary

About 4.6 Bton of plastic ended up in landfills, oceans, beaches or coasts during the last century. Current technology is not able to really recycle plastic like Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET, the second most widespread plastic polymer in the world, after PE) but just to extend the life of a portion of the total waste, without a real re-introduction at the beginning of value chain (a complete recycle, producing new virgin PET from waste). PET is used in a huge number of applications thanks to its characteristics. Itâ€™s a transparent, flexible, food safe polymer, which is quite easy to mold and weave in fibres used in textile production (also called polyester). Every year 75% of industrial petroleum-based PET goes to waste, with peak of 99,7% of polyester (which accounts for 2/3 of virgin PET global production).
The cPET project aims to develop a recycling technology, able chemically regenerate used PET and polyester to virgin PET. cPET is able to work even with high impurity waste PET like colored and opaque plastic and polyester, thanks to a proprietary technology. The overall objectives of the project are: 1) to complete the pilot plant already existing with a polymerization facility to close the regeneration cycle (PET waste -> depolymerization -> new monomers -> polymerization -> virgin PET) and 2) to close commercial deals with suppliers and customers, to validate and implement a complete local circular economy.

Work performed

We collaborated with a large PET producer to identify the specifics of monomers acceptable (in terms of chemical properties and legal framework) to be implemented in current existing industrial processes. Then we tested the both physical and chemical properties of cPET monomers, which showed to be well suited for the industrial integration. In particular we showed even the possibility to obtain crystals with dimension egual or below current commercial ones, which could, in future, lead to even faster reaction time.
Exploiting a second collaboration with a worldwide leader engineering group, we designed and identified costs of a polymerization facility suited for the cPET technology. Each process step was identified. The facility includes two reactors (one autoclave), and a list of facility components is included in the report, as well as its costs, divided in equipment and engineering expenses.
Regarding business objectives, we interacted with worldwide PET stakeholders to better identify the whole PET value chain, including feedstock costs and future demand. All the interactions revealed a clear interest in cPET technology and show there is an important business opportunity for Gr3n. A deep market analysis was completed to study the regulatory framework, PET demand segmentation, evolution of PET price, competitor analysis and potential investors. Moreover a sensitivity analysis of Eco/Fin projection for the recycling plant projected was studied in the different feedstock price scenarios.
Finally we completed a CBA and overall Eco/Fin projections of Gr3n up to 2023.

Final results

Gr3n has developed cPET, a revolutionary chemical process which allows to recycle all types of post-consumer PET products (e.g. bottles, food containers and polyester clothes) in a closed loop cycle, obtaining as output the very same pure monomers that currently feed the PET production cycle. The process is a clean, safe and profitable way to recycle PET/polyester plastic waste and enables to comply with the principles of the circular economy. It is then possible to produce the cPET in each urban area, which can directly feed the local need for the production of plastic products.
cPET provides the following substantial benefits all along the PET value chain:
â€¢To large retailers: the availability of a 100% recycled PET is evoked by all major brands in their sustainability reports. Besides Corporate Social Responsibility, retailers are currently required to pay a national environmental contribution for each ton of plastic entered into the market. Currently, policy makers are working on regulations that reward companies which use recycled materials, by discounting the taxes based on percentage of recycled plastic. This would provide retailers with huge economic savings in the long term.
â€¢To mechanical recyclers and municipalities: they have access to all types of waste plastics, and will have the possibility to increase the low value of post-consumer PET products as well as mechanical recyclers industrial scraps (which represent around 30% of production). In fact, Gr3n allows treating coloured baled bottles, thus representing a unique alternative for mechanical recycling of these lower value waste, and transforming it into new feedstock for a new recycling model based on circular economy, thus greatly benefitting the whole regions that adopt the solution.
â€¢To the environment: through our preliminary analysis, the Gr3n de-polymerization process is poised to mark a 38% of CO2/kg and 67% of MJ/kg reduction with respect to the environmental/energetic impact of current monomersâ€™ production from oil companies, and to improve the logistics impact, as monomers are 5 times denser than baled bottles, reducing by 80% the needs for transportation. The real impact comes the 100% recycling of PET waste: we estimated that around 600 cPET plants would be able to recycle the PET waste produced worldwide every year, thus contributing to solve the dramatic plastic pollution problem.
During this project Gr3n aims to the demonstration of cPET technology in an industrial relevant scenario, validating the circular economy in a geographic area where the PET value chain is highly valued by the presence of both suppliers and costumers. The interaction with different stakeholders is helping the company to settle in the local production chain, and to validate both its technology and business objectives.