A large number of components in automobiles are made from plastics. They have to meet exacting safety, heat resistance and quality requirements. That is why, so far, only petroleum-based materials have been suitable for manufacturing plastic components in automobiles that are subjected to particularly intensive wear. Such materials are not recyclable in most cases. Whereas plastics of the same type can often be mechanically recycled, recycling of mixed plastic waste poses a major challenge. Audi and the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT) are therefore launching a pilot project for chemical recycling as part of the “Industrial Resource Strategies” THINKTANK in order to feed such mixed plastic fractions back into a resource-conserving circular system.
A“We want to establish smart circular systems in our supply chains and make efficient use of resources,” says Marco Philippi, Senior Director Procurement Strategy. “Chemical recycling has great potential for this: If plastic components can be produced from pyrolysis oil instead of petroleum, it would be possible to significantly increase the proportion of sustainably manufactured components in automobiles. In the long run, this method can also play a role in end-of-life vehicle recycling.”
The “Chemical Recycling of Plastics in Automotive Engineering” pilot project targets the creation of smart circular systems for plastics and to establish this method as a complement to mechanical recycling and replacement of energetic recovery. Partnering with KIT, Audi intends to initially test the technical feasibility of chemical recycling and to evaluate the method in terms of its economy and environmental impacts. These evaluations are performed at KIT by teams led by ProfessorDieter Stapf (PhD) at the Institute for Technical Chemistry (ITC) and Dr. Rebekka Volk at the Institute for Industrial Production (IIP). For this purpose, the company provides plastic components that are no longer needed, such as fuel tanks, wheel trim parts and radiator grills, from Audi models returning from the German dealership network, for example. These plastic components are processed into pyrolysis oil by chemical recycling. The quality of this oil corresponds to that of petroleum products, and materials made from it are equally high-grade as new ones. In the medium run, components made from pyrolysis oil can be used again in automobiles.
So far, chemical recycling has been the only method that can be used to convert such mixed plastic waste into products equaling the quality of new ones. As a result, a wider range of plastics can be recovered. Such closed material loops have several advantages. They conserve valuable resources because less primary material is required. This, in turn, saves energy and costs – and is beneficial to the environment. Audi is one of the first automobile manufacturers to test this recycling method in a pilot project with plastics from automobile production. “Recycling automotive plastics has not been possible for many components so far. That is why we are doing pioneering work here together with Audi,” says Professor Dieter Stapf, Head of the Institute for Technical Chemistry at KIT. “If we want to close these loops, we need to develop suitable methods for this.”
This project is conducted by the THINKTANK Industrial Resource Strategies which the Baden-Württemberg state government, together with industry and supported by academia, has established at KIT. “The THINKTANK is focused on a holistic view of raw material loops. Chemical recycling can be a major component of comprehensive plastics recycling. This makes it such an interesting proposition for the automotive industry. The THINKTANK and Audi are jointly addressing a central issue of making automobiles more sustainable and environmentally friendly irrespective of their type of powertrain, going forward,” says Dr. Christian Kühne, the Managing Director of the THINKTANK.
Audi has identified chemical recycling as an opportunity together with its suppliers as part of CO2 workshops. The objective of Audi’s CO2 program is to use resources as efficiently as possible and to reduce CO2 emissions in the upstream value chain, clearly focusing on materials that are either required in large quantities or entail particularly energy-intensive manufacturing processes. A successful case in point is the Aluminium Closed Loop with which Audi and its suppliers managed to recover aluminum waste and improve it to new-product quality level, thus avoiding some 150,000 metric tons of CO2 on the environmental balance sheet just in 2019.
The company is planning to gradually increase the proportion of secondary materials in its models. The most recent example is the utilization of PET in the Audi A3. PET is a plastic polymer that can be separated from other materials with which it may have been combined and is therefore easier to recycle. For the Audi A3, for instance, three textile seat covers are available with a recycled material content of up to 89 percent. At the moment, the seat covers are not completely made of recyclable materials. “The challenge is the lower fabric, which is connected to the upper material with an adhesive. We are working on replacing this too with recyclable polyester,” says Ute Grönheim, who is responsible for textile materials development at Audi. “Our goal is to manufacture the seat cover completely from the same type of material so that it can be recycled. We’re not far from achieving this goal.” Going forward, all textile seat covers are supposed to be made of recycled materials across all model ranges. If its technical feasibility can be demonstrated, Audi plans to industrialize the technology and then progressively apply it to more and more components.
https://www.audi.com/
Audi and KIT are working on recycling method for automotive plastics
RS MULITCUT Heating tunnel
Designed to heat rigid plastic pipes and profiles before cutting.
Hard materials sometimes have the property of splintering or generating cutting chips when they are chipped when cold.
By heating the material in the inline process, we achieve a clean and chip-free cut. There is no need for expensive post-processing.
Our heating tunnel works ideally in connection with our RS MULTICUT rotary cutter MC-NG.
In this application, the preheating sections we manufacture have 2 heaters each 3,000 watts. The heat supply is regulated depending on the speed. In addition, an extremely fast on / off function is integrated so that the amount of heat can be controlled precisely.
Different heat levels are available for different polymer types, product sizes and line speeds.
All of our heating tunnels are fully safeguarded to protect the user and avoid the risk of fire.
Suitable polymers: impact-resistant, rigid PVC, HDPE, PB, PP.
https://schlicht-gmbh.de/
SABIC EXPANDS POST-CONSUMER RECYCLED ENGINEERING THERMOPLASTICS FOR CONSUMER ELECTRONICS AND E&E APPLICATIONS
Responding to calls from major brands in the consumer electronics business and electrics and electronics (E&E) industry as a whole for more sustainable materials, SABIC – a global leader in the chemical industry – announced that its engineering thermoplastics business is expanding its portfolio of CYCOLOY™ and LEXAN™ resins containing high levels of post-consumer recycled material (PCR). Typical applications for the portfolio will include consumer electronics and accessories such as chargers and adapters, printers, copiers and laptop housing.
The new PCR material is blended with the virgin material to create compounds with PCR levels of initially up to 30%. According to an internal SABIC LCA Study, these compounds offer potentially significant reductions in carbon footprint of up to 25% and in energy consumption of up to 30% compared to virgin material.
SABIC hopes to be able to offer materials with PCR content of up to 60% in 2021. The compounds and their properties will be tailored according to different industry requirements.
“The initiative to produce a broader portfolio of engineering thermoplastics with PCR content complements our existing efforts in making base resins from certified renewable feedstock. Together, our circular solutions from our TRUCIRCLE™ portfolio and services can help to improve plastic recyclability, lower emissions and drive towards closing the loop on used plastic,” said Sergi Monros, Vice President of Performance Polymers & Industry Solutions for Petrochemicals at SABIC. “Our vision of a circular economy requires collaboration across the value chain, and we are committed to working with downstream and upstream partners to drive the transformation needed.”
The extended range of materials will contain PCR polycarbonate coming from applications such as five-gallon water bottles and optical media. “Such products are made with clear polycarbonate, and they are easy to obtain, sort and clean,” continued Monros. “We are also investigating use of PCR polycarbonate from end of life automotive applications such as head-lights and dashboards.”
Within the expanded portfolio, SABIC will also develop materials to meet the various needs of different players in the market, grades with different levels of flame retardance, reaching up to
5VB @ 1.5 mm, targeting various business equipment applications and electrical applications such as internal components. The company will also offer grades with PCR content for applications that require good clarity. The new portfolio will therefore encompass both unfilled grades and grades containing filler.
SABIC has set very strict requirements on the quality of the incoming PCR material, which it will acquire by partnering with approved suppliers who will source feedstock from around the world. SABIC will obtain the PCR material in ready-to-process granular form, to be compliant with China’s policies on plastics waste.
The new PCR materials form part of SABIC’s TRUCIRCLE portfolio and services, which showcases the company’s circular innovations and can help to provide manufacturers with access to more sustainable materials. In doing so, SABIC aims to help manufacturers give the end-consumer more confidence about buying products with the knowledge that the material can be recycled and repurposed, or that it has been produced in a way that can help protect our planet’s natural resources. The TRUCIRCLE portfolio spans design for recyclability, mechanically recycled products, certified circular products from feedstock recycling of used plastic and certified renewables products from bio-based feedstock.
Giving better fire safety to the 5G revolution
Muttenz, November 23, 2020 – Like 3G, 4G and the wireless standards that went before, 5G
promises to bring us another leap in communication and connectivity – and this time a particularly
huge one. Phones will be able to download whole 4k movies in seconds, and streaming becomes
ultra-smooth. Augmented reality will help us with our shopping decisions, cars, robots and factories
fully connect, and doctor’s visits become possible from a 1,000 miles away.
The components the 5G revolution literally rests on are printed circuit boards, or PCBs – thin sheets
with metal traces and mounted circuits for transmitting radio signals. To implement the new
standard, these PCBs must be installed in countless new base stations and devices, and to support
the high speeds and frequencies 5G uses, they must perform even better than before. This includes
how well they relay signals and resist to heat and moisture – and it also includes Clariant’s specialty,
balancing all this with reliable and sustainable fire safety.
When people talk about PCBs, they often mean the entire assembly, but properly they are only the
board that the electronic components of the circuit sit on. This board usually consists of copper-clad
laminate, or CCL – a lasagna-like arrangement often featuring multiple layers of insulating material
riddled with copper traces for conducting currents and signals. The non-conductive layers are made
of epoxy resin or other suitable plastics, some of them reinforced with paper or glass fiber, and the
properties these seemingly unimportant layers of the PCB lasagna have are actually very vital.
This already starts during manufacture, when the components are soldered on. The heat involved
can be quite high, especially when lead-free soldering is used, as required by the EU’s Directive on
the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS). The relevant PCB parameter here is their
glass transition temperature, or Tg, which indicates at what point their rigid resin layers become
rubbery and soft. The Tg is also important when PCBs are used in hot environments, as for instance
in cars or oil drills, and high heat resistance is generally desirable in the higher 5G operating
temperatures. Low water absorption is also a plus, as it wards off corrosion of the fine metal traces.
Another crucial aspect which heat, moisture and frequency all play into are the electrical properties
of the insulating materials. The key performance parameters of the non-conductive layers here are
dielectric constant (Dk) and dissipation factor (Df), which both must be kept low to minimize
transmission loss and delay. This also reduces loss of power and electromagnetic »crosstalk«
between the fine copper traces – ensuring 5G users smooth high-speed communication and tranquil
enjoyment of hyper-low latency and real-time apps.
Giving better fire safety to the 5G revolution
Clariant’s phosphorus-based flame retardants from the Exolit® OP and Exolit EP lines have all the
right characteristics for supporting these properties in high-speed, high-frequency PCBs and making
the 5G standard a reality. Available both as liquid processable product (Exolit EP) and very fine
powders (Exolit OP), their high content of phosphorus, which can also be synergized with other
flame retardants, gives them high efficiency at low doses. With their high thermal stability, they are
suitable for lead-free assembly and packaging of electronics, and able to »stand the heat« when 5G
transmission runs hot. They are also highly hydrophobic, meaning they are not easily dissolved by
water or increase its absorption.
Our Exolit OP products neither significantly impact the Tg nor the Dk and Df of the final product, and
even at a frequency of 10 gigahertz, a final dissipation factor of only 0.006 can be achieved. Just as
importantly, the halogen-free solutions need to comply with RoHS regulations for flame retardants
in electronics, and are a particularly sustainable choice. Our phosphinates are produced with 100%
green electricity at our German plants, and recently we have introduced an earth-friendly OP Terra
range of products, based on renewable carbon sources.
Not just for PCBs, but also for flexible CCLs called FCCLs, encapsulation, thermal management and
electromagnetic shielding components our non-halogenated flame retardants offer great options. In
their own way, they are just as advanced as the new 5G technology they help to protect – and
contribute to making both safer and more enjoyable.
https://www.clariant.com/
‘OPERADORA DE FERROCARRIL Y MANEJO DE RELLENOS’ (OFMRS) INAUGURATES STADLER SORTING PLANT IN MEXICO
Mexico is one of the world’s ten biggest producers
of Municipal Solid Waste on account of its vast size and large population. The country
generates around 120,000 tonnes of waste a day, which add up to 44 million tonnes a year.
This situation has been further aggravated by an increase in waste (estimated at between
3.3 and 16.5% according to a study conducted by the Instituto Nacional de Ecología y
Cambio Climático de México – the National Institute for Ecology and Climate Change) due to
the country’s lockdown period, which has affected patterns in consumption and medical
treatment. In this situation, the new sorting plants based on the automation of waste
management, take on even greater importance for their potential to improve the
environmental situation in Mexico and boost the circular economy.
“STADLER aims to be a driver in the change that Mexico needs to achieve a green economy
standard shaped by technological innovations and business models. Both will undoubtedly
bring environmental, social and economic benefits,” explains Natalya Duarte, Sales Manager
for Mexico at STADLER.
The new sorting plant inaugurated by Operadora de Ferrocarril y Manejo de Rellenos
(OFMRS) is testament to this trend towards automation. This private company, which
specialises in final disposal for MSW, has joined forces with STADLER to develop a plant in
the city of Cuautla (Morelos, Mexico) capable of managing comprehensive waste treatment
for 16 municipalities in Morelos and a small part of Mexico City.
“This project was born of the vision shared by OFMRS and STADLER on waste
management. This vision has led to a technological proposal and the development of a new
operating model,”, says Natalya Duarte. “The aim was to recover different types of recyclable
packaging and materials and re-distribute them back into various production chains, as many
times as possible. This innovative business and management model makes such projects
feasible, as well as making them more profitable due to the highly-efficient sorting process
and high purity levels of the materials.”
Crisóforo Arroyo, General Manager for the La Perseverancia landfill, underlines his
confidence in STADLER: “Our decision to invest in the project with STADLER was not only
based on their reputation as a serious leading German technology firm in the sector, but also
on the fact that this comprehensive project was sustainable and took domestic market
conditions into account.”
“This new plant fulfils our objectives on many levels: generating a purer biogas; reducing the
carbon footprint; strategic alliances with firms that recycle and transform recycled input
materials into green packaging; re-distribution of recycled input materials within a circular
economy; and the creation of shared value based on sustainability and quality,” adds
Crisóforo Arroyo.
“Our aim is to turn this project into a knowledge exchange platform for the various parties
involved in the recycling chain and an ongoing laboratory where new waste management
processes can be tested across the country,” says Natalya Duarte.
OFMRS, a process based on automation and technology
Within this circular economy-based approach, the most important points that set OFMRS
apart are its high degree of automation (among the highest in the country), its ability to sort
by type of polymer and color, and its management model.
With facilities spanning 3,800 m 2 , and a maximum output of 640-700 tonnes/day, OFMRS
sorts, classifies, compacts and commercialises MSW, recovering materials including
cardboard, paper, carton packaging, plastic, glass, and ferrous and non-ferrous materials.
Biogas is also recovered from organic waste and fed to two Guascorde 1 mW power
generators with a power output of 2mW. The energy generated is supplied to two companies
in the state of Mexico through the power supply network owned by state-owned power utility
CFE.
The plant’s automated closed-loop system comprises ten cutting-edge machines and thirty-
five recirculating conveyor belts.
The process starts with reception of the MSW, which undergoes several processing stages,
including the removal of ‘non-recoverable’ waste. It is then sorted into three groups: firstly,
fine, metal and organic waste, which is sent to a reject container; secondly, flat or 2D waste
(cardboard, paper, plastic wrap and carton packaging); and finally, bottled or 3D waste (PET,
HDPE, PP, carton packaging and aluminium). The last two types of waste are forwarded to a
manual sorting area. Finally, the conveyor belt feeds the materials into the compactor and
the final product is ready: recoverable waste bundles (cardboard, paper, plastic wrap, carton
packaging, PET, HDPE, PP and aluminium).
In the spotlight: the circular economy and environmental protection
In order to improve work practices, productivity, Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) and
environmental protection, OFMRS has been operating to international ISO 9001 quality, ISO
45001 OHS, and ISO 1400 environmental standards since mid-2020.
According to Natalya Duarte: “This is the first project in Mexico that involves different parties
in the recycling chain with the aim of protecting the environment. It is also the first national
project that sets out to industrialise and professionalise the process, seeking the highest
efficiency and purity levels and adhering to the strictest quality standards, including ISO.”
“The adoption of tried and tested German STADLER technology results in an attractive
business model for using, recovering and recycling waste. By recovering waste in this way,
the consumption of natural resources, water and energy is reduced,” according to OFMRS.
STADLER, integrated projects that can be relied on
STADLER works closely with clients to optimise its integrated projects. It provides clients
with advice and support throughout the whole project and during the business model
proposal: working out the project’s financial structure, developing the distribution channels,
operating advice, designing the technical proposal based on the project’s specific
requirements, and providing after-sales service, which includes maintenance plans and
spare parts stocking in greater volumes and for longer periods.
“Also, and even more importantly, STADLER provides ‘operational assistance’ which means
that the technology provider continually oversees the client’s facilities. This guarantees
maximum operational efficiency for the plant, which supplies its end product to leading
companies in the food sector. These services include input/output waste profiling studies,
quality control on selected materials and production, and more,” Natalya Duarte notes.
OFMRS confirms that the German company’s approach was a crucial deciding factor when it
came to choosing a partner for the project: “Our decision to work with STADLER was not
only based on their experience in the MSW sorting and recovery process, we also knew that
they could help us to consolidate the project from a technical, administrative and financial
perspective. STADLER also understands our needs and adapts the design of their
technology to our new processes to professionalise MSW management.”
www.w-stadler.de
Covestro develops sustainable cast elastomer solution for the offshore industry
Covestro has developed a sustainable cast elastomer solution that enables the offshore industry to reduce its environmental impact and carbon footprint. The polyurethane elastomers are based on so-called cardyon® brand polyols, which contain CO2 and offer the same good performance as corresponding petrochemical-based elastomers. A new technology from Covestro makes it possible to produce these precursors from carbon dioxide in a proportion of up to 20 percent by weight, thereby replacing some of the fossil raw materials used up to now. The development contributes to recycling carbon and underlines Covestro’s intention to focus all its activities on the Circular Economy.
In its search for a more sustainable solution for the offshore industry, molding company Polarttech opted for a Desmodur® elastomer system containing cardyon® polyols. This cast polyurethane elastomer offers the following advantages:
- The part produced with this system shows very good hydrolysis resistance, as expected from such an offshore application, and is more durable than other elastomers such as rubber.
- The polyurethane system enables the production of elastomers with high-performance or even better mechanical properties such as tensile strength and tear resistance than corresponding conventional cast polyurethane systems made from fossil raw materials.
- The solution offers the possibility to reduce the carbon footprint and dependence on fossil raw materials.
“The use of CO2 in chemical raw materials is a groundbreaking innovation that is in perfect harmony with our vision of recycling,” comments Thomas Braig, Head of Covestro Elastomers. “What is important to us, of course, is a successful application in practical use. We are pleased when manufacturers choose this sustainable solution, and appreciate the trust they place in our innovations, especially in our Desmodur® elastomer system, which contains cardyon® polyols.”
“Our goal is to provide our customers with the quality products they need,” adds Arthur Brouwers, CTO of Polarttech. “The tests we conducted confirmed both the property profiles and the processing conditions of the system developed by Covestro.” The newly developed solution surpasses Polarttech’s previous system in terms of resilience and abrasion resistance. Moreover, its processing is easier thanks to a long pot life and excellent detaching wen the part is demoulded. “The use of cardyon® polyol in our system rounds off this project and makes it a perfect solution for everyone involved,” says Arthur Brouwers, “especially for the environment!”
About Covestro:
With 2019 sales of EUR 12.4 billion, Covestro is among the world’s largest polymer companies. Business activities are focused on the manufacture of high-tech polymer materials and the development of innovative solutions for products used in many areas of daily life. The main segments served are the automotive, construction, wood processing and furniture, and electrical and electronics industries. Other sectors include sports and leisure, cosmetics, health and the chemical industry itself. Covestro has 30 production sites worldwide and employs approximately 17,200 people (calculated as full-time equivalents) at the end of 2019.
Covestro.com
Ship & Shore expands pollution control business into India
Kistler unveils optimized digital charge amplifier
Back in 2018, Kistler achieved a breakthrough in industrial charge amplifier technology by introducing its 5074A digital charge amplifier. Launched on the market as the world’s first digital charge amplifier, the 5074A is the ideal solution for control and monitoring of industrial processes such as press-fit, assembly and joining operations. It was the only amplifier on the market with communication consistently based on Industrial Ethernet (IE): for the first time ever, it gave plant and machinery manufacturers the possibility of integrating any desired piezoelectric sensors directly into their real time-capable Ethernet systems. Users could comfortably make settings on the measurement amplifier via the control – something that was never possible in the past. Maximum flexibility was ensured by an extremely wide measuring range – from 20 to 1,000,000 pC – coupled with an extensive range of measurement functions for diverse applications, opening up virtually unlimited operational possibilities. All these advantages made the 5074A amplifier the perfect product for applications requiring dynamic and quasistatic measurements via Industrial Ethernet. Another key benefit: high performance by today’s standards, allowing acquisition rates of up to 50 kSps per channel and real-time transmission of measurement data with cycle times as low as 100 μs.
“The new 5074B digital charge amplifier, available as of now, supersedes the 5074A – and it retains the range of tried-and-tested benefits offered by its predecessor,” says Stefan Affeltranger, Product Manager for Production Monitoring at Kistler. But the 5074B also comes with two features that deliver major operational improvements. The new amplifier is ready to operate within around six seconds, as compared to the previous time of 30 seconds for each startup procedure – so users save valuable time. This improvement has a direct impact on plant availability, especially for modular plants with swappable hot-plug modules. Another innovation: the two energy paths in the M8 connectors are now separated so that additional standard devices can be connected as per the industry standard without extra considerations. This also makes it possible to switch off the peripheral power. “With the new 5074B, additional devices can be installed in the machine very easily and reliably – and what’s more, this doesn’t result in any further functional restrictions,” Affeltranger explains.
Simple implementation at low cost
Like the 5074A predecessor model, the 5074B can also be implemented simply and at low cost. Integration into an existing Ethernet does not require any additional software. Complex and costly cabling for analog and control signals is also eliminated. Configuration via the control means that industrial processes benefit from excellent data security. “The newly available 5074B is a major addition to the family of charge amplifiers from Kistler, which includes analog and digital models as well as a miniature charge amplifier with IO-Link technology,” Affeltranger points out. “We’re continuously developing our portfolio so that we can respond to users’ widely varying requirements by offering innovations and cutting-edge technologies. And this also opens the way for digitalization of the measuring chain in many areas where such a step did not seem technically or economically viable until now.”
https://www.kistler.com/
ARCHROMA TOPS INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC & ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS (IPE) LIST OF INDUSTRIAL CHEMICAL COMPANIES DRIVING SUPPLY CHAIN TRANSPARENCY
Reinach, Switzerland, 23 November 2020 – Archroma, a global leader in specialty
chemicals towards sustainable solutions, has been recently ranked number 1 in the
“industrial chemicals” list published by the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs (IPE)
for driving transparency in their supply chain.
Archroma also entered the Top 50 of companies in IPE’s Green Supply Chain CITI
Evaluation, at the 47th position. The evaluation dynamically assesses brands on the
environmental management of their supply chains in China.
Archroma supplies industries as diverse as textiles, fashion, packaging, paper, adhesives,
paints, and construction, with innovations and solutions that can be found in many
consumer goods, from paper and packaging, to home décor paints and textiles, to clothing
and car seats.
With a wide array of products used every day, everywhere, the company is committed to
operate along the principles of “The Archroma Way to a Sustainable World: Safe, efficient,
enhanced, it’s our nature”. The Archroma team is therefore committed to sourcing safe and
sustainable raw materials and intermediates from like-minded partners.
Archroma’s efforts in this area have been noticed and rewarded earlier this year with the
EcoVadis Gold award.
Heike van de Kerkhof, CEO of Archroma, recently delivered a message at the IPE 2020
Green Supply Chain Forum online, and commented: “As industry leader, we have the
responsibility to keep on addressing the climate challenge, and to do everything we can
together to reduce our impact on the environment. This is where the approach of the
Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs supports us. They encourage us to challenge
our suppliers in terms of safety, health and environment, and to go even beyond our own
strict policies and processes.”
“We congratulate Archroma for its excellent acceleration of supply chain oversight during
2020”, said Linda Greer, Ph.D., IPE’s Senior Global Fellow, “and we are delighted to
welcome them into our Top 50 in their very first year. We hope that companies sourcing
chemicals for manufacturing take note of this leadership in sustainability, as it is so rare to
see in the chemical sector.
https://www.archroma.com/
BOREALIS MAKES PROGRESS TOWARDS “GOAL ZERO” THANKS TO UPGRADED STATE-OF-THE-ART WATER TREATMENT SYSTEM IN SCHWECHAT, AUSTRIA
- EUR 6 million investment in novel filtering system at production facilities in Schwechat, Austria, further minimises risk of plastics loss
- Collaboration helps produce custom-built, multi-stage filtering system
- Step-change filtering system uses best technology and is now fully operational
Borealis announces that the upgraded wastewater treatment system at its integrated production location in Schwechat, Austria, is now fully operational. Successful tests of the sophisticated new multi-step system, which was installed in November 2019, show that the facility is now even more effective than before in reducing the risk of unintentional plastics spillage or loss. Borealis invested around EUR 6 million in the custom-built filtration system, which is the result of extensive and productive collaboration with Austrian universities and technology providers.
New filtration system utilises best technology
As a responsible company, Borealis is committed to enhancing sustainability in its own operations and across the entire supply chain by striving to eliminate plastics loss altogether.
The new filtration system in Schwechat is the most recent example of concrete measures taken at an operational level to achieve “Zero Pellet Loss,” the umbrella term for Borealis and industry efforts to reduce spillage. Regular internal monitoring of wastewater flows ensures that emissions always remain within stringent regulatory parameters.
Borealis collaboration with the Technische Universität Wien (TU Wien) and Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) provided a way forward in the upgrade of the Schwechat treatment system. After determining at the start of the project that there were no off-the-shelf solutions that offered better performance than the existing equipment, Borealis engineers first worked closely with scientists from these universities to find novel ways to measure the presence of plastic matter in water before proceeding to design and construct its own new systems for removing such matter from wastewater.
The custom-built filtration infrastructure installed on the Schwechat grounds towards the end of 2019 includes two separate filtration systems for the multi-stage treatment of clean water. This novel system is able to filter a broad range of particle sizes of total suspended solids (TSS), from several millimetres to extremely fine – in the low micrometre range. The equipment is installed downstream from existing polymer separators and acts as an additional layer of protection. A study of the TU Wien confirms that the filtration system has enabled us to make a step change in the purity of our wastewater.
Borealis has and will further leverage learnings from the study as well as the development of this custom-built filtration system not only in all its production locations to further improve its operations, but also the whole value chain to foster the European “Zero Pellet Loss” and Operation Clean Sweep goals.
“The purification capabilities we had in place in Schwechat were already good, but the upgraded system boasts a level of sophistication that is leading in all of Europe’s plastics industry,” says Borealis CEO Alfred Stern. “Innovating for more sustainable living together with our partners in science and making substantial investments in such upgrades enhances our operational excellence. We intend to deliver on our commitment to reducing plastics loss in order to achieve our ‘Goal Zero’ of no losses whatsoever.”
Alongside operational measures, the Borealis “Zero Pellet Loss” effort encompasses a wide range of activities within the industry. Borealis was an early signatory to Operation Clean Sweep® (OCS), an international programme initiated by the Society of the Plastics Industry and the American Chemistry Council. In Europe, this programme is coordinated by PlasticsEurope, and in 2019, Borealis contributed to the drafting of stringent new requirements. In Austria, Borealis is also a signatory to the “Zero Pellet Loss” pact, which shares similar goals to the OCS programme.
www.borealisgroup.com | www.borealiseverminds.com