MOSCOW (MRC) -- Styrolution, the styrenics subsidiary of Ineos, and Americas Styrenics (AmSty) say they plan to build jointly a 100-metric ton/day polystyrene (PS) recycling facility in Channahon, Illinois, using chemical recycling technology from Agilyx to produce styrene monomer, said Chemweek.
The new plant will be the largest of its type in the world, according to Agilyx CEO Tim Stedman. Engineering design for the facility is under way, ahead of the construction and commissioning phases, the companies say. Plans for the plant were first revealed by Styrolution and Agilyx in December. AmSty and Agilyx formed a joint venture (JV) in 2018 to advance the development of a similar facility in Tigard, Oregon, using Agilyx’s pyrolysis technology. The Channahon facility will be engineered on a larger-scale, they say.
Agilyx will source and supply plastic waste feedstock for the facility through its recently formed Cyclyx subsidiary. “We have developed a feedstock management system, which is just as important as the technology in developing the supply chain for this new market,” says Joe Vaillancourt, president of Cyclyx. “The overarching goal of Cyclyx is to dramatically increase the recyclability of post-use plastics with a priority for fully circular pathways, as well as assisting in the development of new supply chains that will aggregate and preprocess larger volumes of post-use plastics than current systems," he says.
As per ICIS-MRC Price Report, the high impact polystyrene (HIPS) and general purpose polystyrene (GPPS) market
participants in Russia said demand for material remained strong amid its shortage. Large buyers were generally provided with material according to their needs, whereas small ones could not fully meet their needs, as there were no free quantities of Nizhnekamskneftekhim's polystyrene (PS) for injection moulding, extrusion and production of XPS-boards at the beginning of autumn.
AmSty, Styrolution, and Trinseo signed a joint development agreement earlier this month to explore options for recycling PS. AmSty is a JV between Trinseo and Chevron Phillips Chemical (CPChem).
Styrolution and AmSty each have about 750,000 metric tons/year of PS production capacity in North America, making them the largest producers in the region, according to data from IHS Markit.
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