GR3N launches industrial demonstration plant for its Microwave Assisted DEpolymerization (MADE) recycling technology

The demo plant will be able to shred the input material, depolymerize it, purify TPA and MEG using a solid process, and then producing new PET chips via a dedicated 500Kg polymerization reactor. This new industrial demonstration plant was designed as the industrial plant, with technical solution that can be easily scalable, and in some cases, like crystallization and distillation, using “state of the art” technology. An initial hydrolysis has been successfully realized, confirming the upscaling of the process; the optimization of the operating parameters is still underway.

"The demonstration plant includes a depolymerization reactor capable of processing 60 Kg of PET per hour, which is the equivalent of almost 2000 bottles, the yearly consumption of 2 people. This is a turning point for GR3N, as with this plant we will be able to fine-tune the process the already existing Process Design Package of the 40K Tons industrial plant ," added Dr. Crippa.

Thanks to the MADE technology developed by GR3N, this approach is now feasible and makes GR3N one of the few companies with the potential to provide a reliable enhanced recycling solution that closes the life cycle of PET, offers food grade polymer material, processes a large variety of waste (post-consumer and/or post-industrial polyesters will be both from bottles, i.e., colored, colorless, transparent, opaque, and textiles, 100% polyester but also with up to 30% of other materials like PU, cotton, polyether, polyurea, etc.) and reduces carbon dioxide emissions.

In principle, the obtained monomers can potentially be re-polymerized endlessly to provide brand new virgin PET or any other polymer using one of the monomers. Polymers obtained can be used to produce new bottles/trays and/or new garments, essentially completely displacing feedstock material from fossil fuels, as the recycled product has the same functionality as that derived traditionally. This means that gr3n can potentially achieve bottle-to-textile, textile-to-textile, or even textile-to-bottle recycling, moving from a linear to a circular system.

www.gr3n-recycling.com