Neste and Ravago Joint venture for

Photo courtesy of Neste.

Neste and Ravago aim to establish a joint venture to build an industrial facility for chemical recycling in North Sea Port’s Vlissingen port area. With this, the companies plan to demonstrate and advance the commercialisation of chemical recycling.

The facility is intended to be the starting point of joint global chemical recycling activities, often also called advanced recycling, built upon the advancement of the thermochemical liquefaction technology of US-based Alterra Energy, an innovative chemical recycling technology company.

This strategic partnership combines Ravago’s expertise in the mechanical preparation of plastic waste, Alterra Energy’s proprietary liquefaction technology, and Neste’s expertise in the processing of hydrocarbons. In Vlissingen, the facility will have an annual processing capacity of about 55,000t of mixed plastic waste, corresponding to the plastic packaging waste generated by some 1.7 million average EU citizens1 per year. The long-term aspiration of the partners is to signifcantly increase the processing capacity on a global scale and continuously develop the joint venture into a global leader for chemical recycling of mixed plastic waste. Chemical recycling will enable the companies to upgrade even coloured and mixed plastic packaging waste into high-quality raw material for the production of new plastics, chemicals, and fuels. Unlike mechanically recycled plastics, chemical recycling enables waste plastic to be used as raw material even in the most sensitive applications, such as primary food packaging or medical devices.

“We are truly excited about the progress of our joint project work. By fxing the investment location and scope, we are again

one step closer to turning our dream into reality”, says Theo Roussis, CEO at Ravago. “Together with Neste, we have the necessary ingredients for a successful recipe to create scalable solutions, converting non-recyclable waste streams into valuable end products.” “Chemical recycling has been a promising technology to accelerate the creation of a circular economy for quite a while”, adds Mercedes Alonso, Executive Vice President, Renewable Polymers and Chemicals at Neste. “Now, it is time to take it to the next level and turn the promise into an industrial solution. By combining the expertise of Ravago and Neste, we have the means to rapidly implement the technology to start production at commercial scale. With joint and dedicated efforts, we can bring together the know-how along the entire value chain to turn waste into valuable resources. Our ambition is clear: to be a global leader in renewable and circular solutions.”

Neste is one of the world’s leading producers of renewable diesel, sustainable aviation fuel, and drop-in renewable feedstocks and solutions for the polymers & chemicals industry. Ravago, is a leading distributor and recycler of polymers. Both companies already have facilities in the Terneuzen port area

Image courtesy of Neste.

of North Sea Port. This targeted investment is the consistent continuation of the fast-paced progress in the cooperation between the partners. In 2019, Neste and Ravago set a joint target to reach the capacity to process over 200,000t of mixed waste plastic per year by 2030. Ever since, the companies have evaluated technologies and the raw material market, and built joint business cases to develop chemical recycling capacities. In 2020, Neste already successfully conducted the frst of several industrial trial runs with liquefed waste plastic at its oil refnery in Finland.