Chemical Recycling

Another form of recycling is chemical recycling. Chemical recycling comes into play when mechanical recycling reaches its limits, for example, if multiple types of plastics are used together in several layers in a product. While most rigid plastic waste can be processed quite well through mechanical recycling, flexible materials (e.g., plastic film) are still predominantly incinerated or sent to landfill. OMV’s chemical recycling technology is an answer to this challenge. Chemical recycling involves changing the mechanical composition of the plastic to produce synthetic crude from plastic waste. This synthetic crude can then be used to make any type of plastic or product. Because it is effectively comparable to virgin plastics, it can also be used in tightly regulated areas such as the food and medical industries. Plastic waste thereby becomes a valuable raw material.

OMV has been exploring the potential for utilizing post-consumer plastics – polyethylene, polypropylene, and polystyrene – through chemical recycling since 2011. The Austrian Research Promotion Agency has also contributed to this effort with subsidies covering part of the project investment. The first test facility was launched in 2013. In 2018, the next-level test facility – the ReOil®^® 100 pilot plant – began fully refinery-integrated operation with a processing capacity of up to 100 kg per hour and a production capacity of up to 100 l of synthetic crude per hour.

The synthetic crude produced is processed further into monomers in the steam cracker at our Schwechat refinery to produce high-quality base materials for the plastics industry. At Borealis, these monomers are then converted into high-grade polymers. Borcycle™C represents the portfolio of chemically recycled polyolefins that Borealis is offering to the market. It provides an important alternative to energy recovery and is suitable for very demanding applications such as food-contact materials.

Management and Due Diligence Processes

The innovative ReOil®^® process converts used plastics into what is known as synthetic crude oil under moderate pressure and normal refinery operating temperatures. This synthetic crude oil (“Syncrude”) is then being used to produce base materials for the plastics industry.

Selection of Feedstock

The ReOil®^® facility is able to process different forms of plastic wastes, ranging from household waste to waste from commercial and industrial sources. The main feedstocks are polyethylene (e.g., films), polypropylene (e.g., food packaging, car parts), and polystyrene (e.g., packaging and insulation materials). Currently, the recycled feedstock is sourced almost exclusively from Austrian waste sorting facilities. In the future, OMV is planning to emphasize the inclusion of flexible plastic waste that is currently not recycled but rather incinerated and which cannot be mechanically recycled.

Technology

Plastic is an excellent heat isolator with poor heat transfer, compared with glass or metal. These properties that make plastic desirable in everyday life make it difficult to break down. OMV’s proprietary ReOil®^® technology is based on pyrolysis, a well-known refinery process during which thermoplastics are first melted and then cracked at a temperature of about 400°C. This means that long-chain hydrocarbons are cracked into shorter-chain light hydrocarbons. One of the inherent challenges in pyrolysis stems from the fact that (compared with glass or metal), plastics are notoriously difficult to melt and once melted, are highly viscous, which impairs the heat transfer necessary for pyrolysis. The ReOil®^® technology is unique compared to those of competitors because of the use of an innovative heat transfer technology which allows us to reduce the molten plastic’s viscosity and thus improve heat transfer. As a result, the ReOil®^® process is scalable to industrial scale (up to 200 kta). Due to the integration into OMV’s refinery in Schwechat, ReOil®^® further achieves higher yields than other non-integrated chemical recycling technologies.

Certification

The ReOil®^® pilot plant is ISCC PLUS certified. The ISCC PLUS certification ensures circular content and standards across the value chain from source to end product. This means that for each ton of circular feedstock fed into the ReOil®^® plant and substituting fossil materials, a certain proportion of the output can be classified as circular. This is called the mass balance approach.

Emissions Reduction

In its initial study, Austria’s ministry of the environment found that substituting crude oil with post-consumer plastics is estimated to reduce CO₂ emissions by 45% and lower energy demand by 20% compared with using fossil resources. In 2021, OMV commissioned a lifecycle assessment to determine the CO₂ reduction potential of its ReOil®^® chemical recycling technology versus incineration. At the time of publication of this Report, the LCA was undergoing peer review.

2021 Actions

The following key activities were carried out across the Group in 2021:

• The final investment decision (FID) was made to build a prototype of a ReOil®^® demonstration plant at an intermediary refinery scale with a processing capacity of up to 2,000 kg per hour. This plant called ReOil®^® 2000 will be fully operational in 2023. Like the pilot plant, the ReOil®^® demo plant will be ISCC PLUS certified. To finance this project, OMV entered into its first-ever green loan agreement. This is aligned with the green loan principles and is based on a green and project-specific external due diligence appraisal, called a second party opinion, and a project-specific green financing framework.
• Borealis has entered into a partnership with Renasci N.V., a provider of innovative recycling solutions and creator of the novel Smart Chain Processing (SCP) concept, to increase its chemical recycling offerings. The SCP concept is a proprietary method of maximizing material recovery to achieve zero waste. It is unique, because it enables the processing of multiple waste streams using different recycling technologies, all under one roof. At the newly built Renasci SCP facility in Oostende (Belgium), mixed waste is automatically selected and sorted multiple times. After sorting, plastic waste is first mechanically recycled. Any remaining material is chemically recycled into circular pyrolysis oil and lighter product fractions, which are used to fuel the process. Sorted non-plastic waste is further processed using other technologies. At the end of the process, only 5% of the original waste remains, which is then used as filler in construction materials. The extremely efficient processing reduces the carbon footprint of these waste streams by more than 30%. As part of the agreement, Borealis will source a projected 20 kt of circular pyrolysis oil annually from Renasci’s Oostende facility. Borealis also plans to purchase mechanically recycled material. Having acquired a 10% stake in the company, Borealis will collaborate closely with Renasci to evolve and scale up the SCP technology. This includes developing facilities that would source their feedstock entirely from household waste.
• In April 2021, Borealis began a feasibility study for establishing a chemical recycling unit at its location in Stenungsund (Sweden). The aim is to secure an increased supply of chemically recycled feedstock for increased production of circular base chemicals and polyolefin-based products. The study is partially funded by a grant from the Swedish Energy Agency and is being carried out with Stena Recycling. It will evaluate the optimal technology for the chemical recycling unit and its integration with the cracker at Stenungsund. Stena Recycling will recover plastic waste and, after sorting to remove materials suitable for mechanical recycling, will deliver it to the new chemical recycling unit. Subject to a successful feasibility study and final investment decision, operations are expected to begin in 2024.
• Borealis has partnered with Swiss dairy company Emmi and Greiner Packaging to produce Emmi CAFFÈ LATTE drinking cups using chemically recycled polypropylene. Emmi is Switzerland’s largest milk processor and has set a goal to make all of its packaging 100% recyclable. It is also committed to promoting circularity, such as packaging that contains at least 30% recyclate by 2027. From September 2021, Emmi CAFFÈ LATTE will use at least 100 t of plastic based on the recycled material each year. The chemically recycled material used for the cup consists entirely of ISCC PLUS certified material on a mass balance basis.

Outlook

Since the first ReOil®^® trials in OMV’s own laboratory, there has been a lot of development work happening. The ReOil®^® 2000 plant will go into full operation in 2023 with a capacity of 16 kt per year. In a next step, the OMV ReOil®^® process is being developed into a commercially viable technology on a large industrial scale by 2026. At that time, up to 200 kt of plastic waste will be processed per year.