Page 151 - CW E-Magazine (25-3-2025)

News from Abroad

STRATEGIC INVESTMENT
Dow buys stake in Rotterdam-based chemical recycling

firm, Xycle

American chemicals firm, Dow,
is investing in Xycle, a Rotterdam-
based chemical recycling spe-
cialist, alongside investors like
ING, Invest-NL, Polestar Capital
and Vopak.

The collective funds, comprising
both equity investments and senior
debt, will support the construction
of Xycle’s first commercial-scale
advanced recycling plant, located in
the Port of Rotterdam. The facility
is expected to be fully operational
by Q4 2026, with a projected plastic
waste processing capacity of 21-kilo-
tons annually (kta).

Dow will be an off-taker of the
circular feedstock produced and will
utilise it to manufacture new circular strates the strength of the opportu- ing and expanding our innovative
plastics. nity at hand to scale advanced pyrolysis-based technology, which
recycling technologies,” commented has been shown to deliver best-in-
Xycle’s advanced recycling tech- Ms. Stephanie Kalil, Commercial class yield for cracker feedstock”.
nology uses low-temperature pyro- Vice President, Dow Packaging &
lysis to efficiently break down dif- Specialty Plastics EMEA. Dow’s investment in Xycle is part
ficult-to-recycle plastic waste into of a broad portfolio of technologies
pyrolysis oil, increasing the liquid According to Dow, the modular to transform plastic waste and other
fraction available for use as cracker layout of Xycle’s facilities allows forms of alternative feedstocks into
feedstock in new plastic produc- production to scale up or down 3-million metric tons of circular and
tion. depending on demand, ensuring both renewable solutions annually.
flexibility and efficiency in opera-
This circular feedstock can be tions. Seen as a complementary process
used to manufacture virgin-quality to the mechanical recycling solu-
plastics for high-value applications, In the future, Xycle plans to tions Dow is accelerating, the ad-
such as food–grade packaging, med- develop more advanced recycling vanced recycling process from Xycle
ical and automotive components. facilities globally, utilising larger allows for a wide range of plastics
reactor sizes to increase single plant waste to be transformed back into
“The performance and efficiency capacity to 100-kta. virgin-quality circular materials.
of Xycle’s technology strongly
complements our increasingly di- Mr. Arnd Thomas, CEO, Xycle Xycle’s technology can process
verse global portfolio of recycling Holding commented, “Dow’s invest- mixed plastic waste that currently
solutions. We believe that the robust ment – alongside our other partners – can’t be mechanically recycled and,
financial backing and credibility in Xycle’s first commercial facility as a result, ends up in landfill or in-
of our consortium partners demon- marks a significant step in develop- cineration.

Chemical Weekly March 25, 2025 151

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