Ioniqa launches PET plastic up-cycling plant
Ioniqa is scaling up its technology for infinite PET plastic upcycling: the technology company is building its first PET plastic up-cycling factory in the Netherlands at Brightlands Chemelot Campus in Geleen. As of summer 2019, PET plastic waste will be converted into high-grade, pure PET raw material, of which new food packaging will be made.
Last April it was announced that Ioniqa had entered into a partnership with Unilever and PET packaging market leader Indorama. According to Tonnis Hooghoudt, CEO of Ioniqa, the cooperation with both multinationals is very important: “Since 2011, we have been developing in our R&D labs in Eindhoven (the Netherlands) this circular technology to up-cycle all types of colored PET plastic wastes and textiles. Over the past two years we carried out many tests at our demonstration plant at Plant One in the Port of Rotterdam (the Netherlands) to prove our process for the production of raw material for food packaging. This was an important step and validates Ioniqa’s circular solution for all stakeholders in the market.”
The Ioniqa plant in the Netherlands (Geleen) will be be ready in the first half of 2019 and the end-product will be delivered to the market in the same year. Output of the plant is 10,000 tons of PET raw materials. However, Hooghoudt envisions this first Ioniqa plant will be followed by many more. The 10,000 ton plant output is still a relatively small volume compared to market demand and scale up to 100,000 or 200,000 tons will certainly follow. “That is something for large internationally operating parties to take on,” says the CEO of Ioniqa. “We focus on licensing our technology globally. This will also ensure that the technology is implemented faster. Ioniqa will continue to focus on further technology development in the future in order to be able to recycle other types of plastics – and in the future also bio-plastics.”
