Dow and Mura Technology announce location of Europe’s ‘largest advanced recycling facility’
Canadian PlasticsMaterials Recycling Sustainability
Mura plans to construct the new facility at Dow's Böhlen site in Germany.
Chemical maker Dow Inc. and UK-based recycling technology developer Mura Technology have revealed the site of the companies’ new chemical recycling project, which is being called the largest facility of its kind to date in Europe, and the first of its kind in Germany.
In a Sept. 14 news release, Dow said that Mura plans to construct a new facility at Dow’s Böhlen site in Germany – the latest in a series of planned facilities across the U.S. and Europe to rapidly scale advanced recycling of plastics – and the first expected to be based at a Dow site.
The project is targeted for a final investment decision by the end of 2023.
Mura’s new Böhlen facility in Germany, which is expected to be operational by 2025, would deliver approximately 120 kilotons per annum (KTA) of advanced recycling capacity at full run-rate. This and the other planned units expected to be constructed across Europe and the U.S. would collectively add as much as 600KTA of advanced recycling capacity by 2030, Dow officials said, and will position Dow to become the largest consumer of circular feedstock for polyethylene (PE) production globally.
“The continuation and growth of Dow and Mura’s collaboration is another example of how Dow is working strategically to expand and build momentum around securing circular feedstocks and supporting breakthrough advanced recycling technologies,” said Isam Shomaly, Dow business vice president for feedstocks and commodities.
The planned facility builds on Dow’s ongoing collaboration with Mura, first announced in 2021, with an initial project to construct the world’s first plant using Mura’s HydroPRS process, located in Teesside, UK, which is expected be operational in 2023 with an initial 20KTA production line. The Böhlen, Germany site, expected to be co-located with Dow’s manufacturing facilities, would enable a significantly larger capacity for plastic waste and considerably increase the supply of fully circular feedstock to the industry. “This circular feed, derived from plastic waste currently destined for incineration or landfill, would reduce reliance on virgin fossil-based feedstocks and would enable [us] to produce a recycled plastic which is in high demand from global brands, particularly for high-end sensitive markets like food and medical applications,” Dow said.
Dow also said it aims to take advantage of co-location benefits, which could significantly reduce the cost of scaling advance recycling facilities. In addition, co-location of Mura’s facilities at Dow locations would be expected to reduce carbon emissions by minimizing transportation of the offtake and as gas output from the advanced recycling process can be converted back to plastics, thereby ensuring no by-products go to waste.
According to Dow, Mura’s HydroPRS (Hydrothermal Plastic Recycling Solution) advanced recycling process is unique, as it uses supercritical steam to convert most forms of plastics – including flexible and multi-layer plastics, which have previously been deemed ‘unrecyclable’ – back into the original oils and chemicals from which they were made. “These can then be used to create new, virgin-equivalent plastic products which are even suitable for food contact packaging,” Dow said. “With Mura’s process, the same material can be recycled repeatedly, meaning it has the potential to eliminate single use plastic and prevent it from going to landfill or being incinerated. This has additional carbon benefits, with advanced recycling processes expected to save approximately 1.5 tons of carbon dioxide per ton of plastic recycled, compared to incineration and reducing reliance on fossil-based feedstocks.”