The US–Israeli war with Iran has created a crisis in supplies of fossil-derived oil and polymer feedstocks. Manufacturing and shipping by the strait of Hormuz has slowed to a trickle, impacting petrochemical and polymer manufacturers across Asia, Europe and beyond. This disruption is bringing renewed focus on the needs for optional feedstocks, and so latest declarations regarding oils derived from chemically recycled waste plastic could be very welcome news.
Biofuels and chemicals manufacturer Neste has authorized what it calls the world’s biggest upgrading facility for liquefied waste plastic at its Porvoo refinery in Finland. The unit is meant to take up to 150,000 tons per year of raw oil output from pyrolysis and chemical recycling procedures – such as Neste’s own Alterra reactors – and catalytically improve it into a feedstock that meets the necessities of petrochemical steam crackers as a drop-in replacement for petroleum. Construction of the brand new upgrading facility and its incorporation into the present oil refinery commenced in 2023 and was finished at the end of 2025. Manufacturing will be scaled up ‘relying on marketplace and legislation development’ the company stated.
In France, Plastic Energy has started manufacturing pyrolysis oil from its fourth chemical recycling facility, in partnership with Total Energies. The plant has an ultimately the capacity to process 15,000 tons of plastic waste per year into its Tacoil feedstock, which is a good way to then be processed at Total Energies’ petrochemical sites. Plastic Energy already operates two same plants in Spain and one in the Netherlands.
On a smaller scale, Clariant has tested a pilot upgrading plant in partnership with Borealis and independent research corporation Sintef. At Sintef’s research facility in Norway, Clariant stated the multi-layer hydrotreatment reactor should fully saturate dienes without forming gums, and transform contaminants containing oxygen, nitrogen and halogens, leaving at the back of a feedstock that meets specifications set out by refining partner Borealis.
While still in its infancy, chemical recycling of plastics has possibility benefits in that it can manage blended materials that are otherwise tough to recycle. It also manufactures feedstocks that are well suited with current plastics manufacturing infrastructure, and the resulting materials have near-same properties to virgin polymers. Moreover, it needs considerably more energy than mechanical recycling, and not all of the input material can be recovered as feedstock for new polymers – a portion usually ends up as low-grade hydrocarbons that are frequently burned as fuel to support power the process. This fuel fraction has ignited tangled regulatory discussions about the how to classify and account for materila recycled this way, as well as criticism from environmental groups.
The technology also acquired a regulatory rise after a latest change in EU policy, which now the allow some chemically recycled inputs to be counted toward recycled content goals. This uses a mass-balance approach – accounting for the overall extent of recycled feedstock that is used alongside fossil feedstocks, instead of tracking recycled content material mainly by the producing process. The US is likewise consulting on change that might no longer classify pyrolysis plants as incinerators under the Clean Air Act – a move welcomed through industry groups.
While chemical recycling has a long way to grow to make any good sized dent in the millions of tons of unrecycled plastic waste produced every year, the technological and regulatory frameworks are slowly progressing closer to a beneficial component of a circular plastic economy.
