Catalytic upcycling process
Ioniqa, a clean-tech spinoff from the Eindhoven University of Technology (NL), is specialised in creating value out of plastic waste by using its proprietary circular technology called Denua. At PRSE, the company was featuring the commercialisation of this catalytic upcycling process, aimed at achieving full circularisation of PET, in collaboration with Koch Technology Solutions (KTS). Via a licensing business model, the two firms want to further improve the sustainability of the industry. The partnership between KTS and Ioniqa addresses the growing demand for recycled content in the 30 million metric t/a PET market.
Denua offers a solution to PET waste that is currently non-recyclable, transforming it into materials suitable for high quality food grade applications such as beverage bottles. It is believed that the collaboration offers the market not only a technical solution when it comes to difficult to recycle PET waste, it also safeguards capacity of existing plants where integration is considered. KTS and Ioniqa view the technology as a disruptor in the PET industry providing a sustainable economic recycle proposition to conventional manufacturing routes.
The basis of the Denua process is at Ioniqa’s current plant in Geleen, the Netherlands, where the chemical recycling process for PET has been developed and operated at kiloton scale for several years. Through their proprietary catalytic upcycling process, they break down PET to the monomer BHET, a molecule that has been shown to be directly applicable in the PET resin production processes of major players such as Indorama.
Caption: At PRSE, Ioniqa was featuring the commercialisation of its catalytic upcycling process, in collaboration with Koch Technology Solutions.
