Waste was yesterday | K3/C3 DGMK conference in Schwechat

16th K3/C3 Conference of the DGMK - Plastics circularity through chemical recycling in Schwechat on September 17/18, 2024

The Managing Director of the DGMK, Gesa Netzeband, opened the event with more than 60 participants with a reference to the special location - the conference took place in the Schwechat refinery - and a heartfelt thank you to OMV as host and the event partners ÖGEW and Plastics Europe. Michael Bender (BASF) then gave welcoming remarks on behalf of the Conversion of Carbon Carriers department and underlined the great relevance of the topic with the increasing demand for crude oil alternatives in plastics production.

In his speech, Otmar Schneider, Head of the refinery, described Schwechat as a site in transition and referred to the integrated 10 MW electrolysis plant, as well as the co-processing of biomass and chemical recycling. This is made possible by the company's own research department, from which various patents have been developed.

By now it had become quite warm and the open doors not only let in fresh air, but also provided a view of the facilities, pipelines and tanks and fueled the anticipation of the tour to the ReOil facilities the following day.

Alexander Kronimus (Plastics Europe) set the framework for the technical program by sharing forecasts on the coming demand for plastics and an overview of the various recycling routes, and consequently calling for design for recycling. Peter Quicker could only underline this petitum, as he had directly selected the dirtiest waste fractions for his work (including those with a high heavy metal content) and tested various routes. His two take-away messages: 1) Don't discriminate against any technology as long as CO2 emissions are the alternative. 2) Refineries are the perfect locations for chemical recycling because by-products can still be used.

While Jens Kaltenmorgen (TU Darmstadt) presented the development of a digital twin based on sensor data on the pilot and the benefits of modeling the subsequent scaling steps, the next speaker, Thorsten Liese (RWE Power AG), was already in the middle of planning a commercial waste-to-hydrogen plant in the Netherlands. According to plan, CO2 will soon be reduced here on an industrial scale.

Thomas Müller (Ruhr University Bochum) addressed the special group of polyurethanes (known from mattress foam and sneaker soles) in his keynote speech and presented approaches to breaking down the long-chain molecules in such a way that further use is possible. Marcus Lehnertz (RWTH Aachen University) is also working on such long-lasting plastics and used the image of an almost perfectly preserved Pril bottle from the 1960s, which came from a landfill site, as motivation. His work dealt with catalyst design in order to make these materials recyclable in the future.

With the H2Cycle (hydrocycling) project, BASF and its project partners are resurrecting a technology that was already used to produce synthetic crude oil at VEBA in Bottrop and DEA in Wesseling in the 1980s. Packaging material and other waste that is not suitable for mechanical recycling is used here and the process is subjected to a comprehensive lifecycle analysis. Initial result: reduction of the CO2 footprint by 60% with the option of more.

Stefan Pirker from OMV opened the second day of the conference with a reminder of the siren alarm at 10:00 - for some just a necessary test, for others part of the experience of meeting in a refinery.

The first session began with contributions from AirLiquide. In his intro, Sebastian König presented the different synthesis routes for green methanol from plastic recycling and compared the corresponding CAPEX, yield and LCOM (leveraged costs of methanol). The scaling of the electrolyzer plants from 1.25 MW (2018) to 20 MW (2023) and a planned 200 MW (2026) shows the ramp-up in the production of green methanol. Tamara Korkut and Florian Pontzen examined the economic viability of methanol synthesis in flexible operation by modeling the additional electrolysis process only when the electricity price is low, electricity generation when the electricity price is very high and conventional methanol synthesis for approx. 80% of the operating hours. Unfortunately, under current regulations, the economic operation of such a plant requires co-generation with biomass.

 "The biggest chemical company that nobody knows". With these words, Andreas Neumann described LyondellBasell. He gave an impressive demonstration of how chemical recycling is implemented on a large scale, using the example of the Ferrara (Italy) and, above all, Wesseling & Hürth/Knapsack sites, where a large integrated site ("Cologne Circular Hub") is being built. He emphasized that although Europe is at a fiscal disadvantage compared to North America, it has the advantage that we are good at collecting and sorting plastic waste.

Frank Behrendt opened the last session on pyrolysis with the remark that this technology is almost as old as incineration, in other words it's an old hat that is now shining in new splendor.

Mathias Franke, Fraunhofer UMSICHT, put on this old hat and in his keynote speech initially focused on pre-treatment, such as sorting (tracer-based or digital watermark), washing and density separation processes. The concentration of undesirable elements can also be significantly reduced in post-treatment during the distillation of pyrolysis oils, as he explained on the basis of analysis data. The analysis of pyrolysis oil was also the focus of Andreas Meiswinkl, Linde. He explained that pyrolysis oil, for example, shows a wider range of boiling temperatures compared to conventional feedstock. Many properties of pyrolysis oils can be handled well, but chlorine, for example, should be reduced to below 1 ppm before the oil is fed into the steam cracker. After the final hydrogenation, the speaker reported, the significant improvement in quality is even visually very clear and the oil is then bright and clear.  

With Marco Tomasi Morgano (Arcus), there was a change of perspective from operator to technology provider. This was accompanied by a shift in focus away from maximum energy efficiency and yield towards the task of "simply processing the waste delivered". And this task is not as simple as it sounds. The speaker reported very openly on the teething troubles of the first plant. Among other things, there were heat losses in the furnace and a cooling system that reacted too slowly caused problems, but the carefully selected feedstock (traded as a product, not as waste) was also not without its problems and brought with it stones and pieces of metal, for example. Nevertheless, the 1000 continuous operating hours were exceeded at the beginning of 2024 and within 4 months a first ordered plant could be significantly optimized and delivered according to specifications.

The quality of the feedstock was also the topic of Tobias Rieger from Fraunhofer UMSICHT, as he explained, "the MPO323 fraction (mixed polyolefin plastic waste) is not the same as MPO323" and other waste groups can also vary greatly. Despite successful decontamination processes, theoretically calculated yields could not stand up to reality. In summary, the lecturer reported that although only around 25% of oil suitable for refining could be produced, over 20% of monoaromatics were also produced, which also have a non-negligible market value and can be traded as a product.

In the last presentation of the day, Stefan Pirker explained that the ReOil plant is a building block in OMV's larger strategy to become a leading integrated sustainable fuels, chemicals and materials company. After his explanations, and even more so after the tour of the refinery, it became clear - they mean business. The installations for the supply lines to the large plants are already in place. Or in his own words: "We're not going to save the world with a demo plant".

Frank Behrendt (TU Berlin) found the appropriate closing words, stating that the strong participation from industry at the conference clearly showed that the conference topic had struck a nerve.