ExxonMobil has completed the initial phase of a plant trial of a proprietary advanced recycling process for converting plastic waste into raw materials for the production of high-value polymers. The trial, at the company’s existing facilities in Baytown, Texas, marks another step in ExxonMobil’s efforts to help reduce plastic waste in the environment and maximise resource recovery.
ExxonMobil intends to use results from the Baytown trial to scale-up advanced recycling capabilities at other global facilities, targeting a circular solution for converting difficult-to-recycle plastic waste into feedstock for virgin-quality plastic.
President of the ExxonMobil Chemical Company, Karen McKee, said ExxonMobil is taking action to help address the issue of plastic waste.
“This advanced recycling initiative brings together the strength of ExxonMobil’s integrated petrochemical facilities and our deep technology expertise in chemical processing to capture value from plastic waste and meet our customers’ growing demand for high-performance, certified circular polymers,” Ms McKee said.
ExxonMobil has already obtained certifications through the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification Plus (ISCC+) process. ISCC+ is recognised by industry as an effective system to certify products that result from advanced recycling of plastic waste.
Pending successful completion of the next phase of the Baytown plant trial, the company plans to market commercial volumes of certified circular plastics later this year.
ExxonMobil has also formed a joint venture with Agilyx Corporation, Cyclyx International LLC, focused on developing innovative solutions for aggregating and pre-processing large volumes of plastic waste that can be converted into feedstocks for valuable products.
Cyclyx will help supply ExxonMobil’s advanced recycling projects and will aim to do the same for other customers.
The company supports making the most of resources and minimising waste, which are the underlying principles of the circular economy concept. Advanced recycling, along with innovation and new processes, will play an important role in reducing plastic waste.
ExxonMobil is a founding member of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, which is focused on accelerating investment in safe, scalable and economically viable solutions to help address the challenge of plastic waste in the environment.
