Page 172 - CW E-Magazine (9-7-2024)

News from Abroad

CIRCULARITY IN ACRYLICS
Trinseo opens PMMA depolymerisation pilot facility in Italy

Trinseo, US-based speciality mate- with carbon footprint reduction versus
rial solutions provider, has opened a virgin MMA.
polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) depoly-
merisation facility in Rho, Italy, on June Mr. Han Hendriks, Chief Technology
25. The pilot facility seeks to advance a Officer at Trinseo, commented, “De-
circular infrastructure for acrylic solutions. polymerisation expands our recycled
feedstock capabilities, which in turn,
Depolymerisation is a chemical will help us innovate new solutions.
recycling process that returns acrylic With this new capability, we can build
solutions to the constituent monomer, Trinseo said its PMMA depolyme- a more robust recycled acrylics port-
methyl methacrylate (MMA). Comple- risation facility delivers a “next-genera- folio to better meet the evolving needs
mentary to other recycling technologies, tion technology, utilising an advanced of our customers.”
depolymerisation helps close the loop continuous process to produce high-
for acrylic recycling with several ad- purity regenerated MMA from pre- and The recycled MMA (rMMA) gene-
vantages over traditional processes. By post-consumer acrylic solutions”. The rated by Trinseo’s depolymerisation
utilising this technology, acrylic solu- technology leverages findings from facility is utilised in the company’s
tions can be recycled – including PMMA the MMAtwo Consortium, a collabo- Altuglas and Plexiglas R-Life product
sheets, which previously could not be rative initiative funded by the European portfolios. Through this new facility,
mechanically recycled. Additionally, re- Union’s Horizon 2020 research and Trinseo can produce rMMA that is
turning the material to its monomer form innovation programme, to develop a comparable to virgin raw materials.
allows additives and contaminants to be new value chain for pre- and post-con- This enables use in high-demand appli-
removed from pre- and post-consumer sumer PMMA and a versatile recycling cations, such as vehicle taillights or
acrylic products. This enables more process for converting this waste into caravan windows that require high
PMMA to be recycled. high-quality regenerated monomer optical quality.
GREENER MATERIALS
Changhua Chemical breaks ground on production

plant for polyols from renewable carbon

Changhua Chemical is beginning sign by keeping CO out of the atmos-
2
the construction of China’s first manu- phere and inside products like furniture
facturing site for sustainable polyols and mattresses, automotive parts, apparel
made from renewable carbon. Located and footwear, and construction materials.
in Lianyungang, the world scale facility
will produce Carnol, a new brand of Notably, adding captured carbon at
polycarbonate ether (PCE) polyols with the molecular level also lets formulators
20-30% fewer greenhouse gases com- finetune and enhance performance charac-
pared to standard chemistries. teristics such as the comfort of mattress
foams, the durability of coatings, and ten-
The technology for Carnol is based scale to over 1 million tons in the coming sile strength in a variety of applications.
on a proprietary process and catalyst from years. According to the Chinese company, According to Changhua Chemical, Carnol
UK-based Econic Technologies, which Carnol polyols can be used to manu- polyols are compatible with emerging
replaces fossil feedstocks with captured facture polyurethane foams, coatings, and recycling technologies and can be used in
CO . Changhua’s new site is expected to elastomers with improved environmental combination with recycled and bio-based
2
produce annual commercial volumes of and performance claims. They reduce polyols to achieve even greater reduc-
about 80,000 tons in early 2025 and will carbon footprint and enable circular de- tions in greenhouse gas emissions.

172 Chemical Weekly July 9, 2024

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