Polyflow Process For Flexible-Packaging Recycling
Recycling and waste-to-energy technologies promise eco-friendly 'second lives' for flexible packaging.Multilayer packaging is very difficult to recycle because it contains many different polymers. Polyflow Corp is working on a technology that will recycle mixed, dirty plastic and rubber waste, sans sorting. “Our process can even take metallized film,” CEO Joe Hensel remarks. The process also does not require metal screws or paper labels to be removed from the packaging before processing.
Using high-temperature anaerobic de-polymerization and chemical reactions, the Polyflow process converts mixed-waste polymers back into monomers that can be sold to petrochemical companies to make polymers. Hensel says the technology could reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil used for plastic manufacturing by as much as half. Major products of the Polyflow process are styrene and its precursors, gasoline blendstock and other hydrocarbons. The company says its technology will be able to produce 0.7 tons of light hydrocarbon liquid for every ton of polymer feedstock.
Polyflow does admit that at this stage in development, the concept carries processing costs that are about 10 percent higher than those of a typical major petrochemical company making the same virgin products. Where the Polyflow concept enjoys an economic advantage is the cost of raw materials; Dirty, mixed plastic and rubber feedstock often is available locally, in abundance and carries a low price tag.
see more
Using high-temperature anaerobic de-polymerization and chemical reactions, the Polyflow process converts mixed-waste polymers back into monomers that can be sold to petrochemical companies to make polymers. Hensel says the technology could reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil used for plastic manufacturing by as much as half. Major products of the Polyflow process are styrene and its precursors, gasoline blendstock and other hydrocarbons. The company says its technology will be able to produce 0.7 tons of light hydrocarbon liquid for every ton of polymer feedstock.
Polyflow does admit that at this stage in development, the concept carries processing costs that are about 10 percent higher than those of a typical major petrochemical company making the same virgin products. Where the Polyflow concept enjoys an economic advantage is the cost of raw materials; Dirty, mixed plastic and rubber feedstock often is available locally, in abundance and carries a low price tag.
see more
Labels: biopolymers, renewable
PermaLink - Polyflow Process For Flexible-Packaging Recycling
