GAIKER continues to make progress in closing the cycle of complex plastic materials by developing chemical recycling technologies

The NEOPLAST 2 project defines the procedures for obtaining, by means of chemical recycling technologies, quality products from complex plastic waste.

Last March saw the end of the NEOPLAST 2 project, led by the GAIKER Technology Centre, a member of the Basque Research & Technology Alliance, BRTA.

NEOPLAST 2 began in 2023 with the aim of researching to develop, improve and adapt chemical recycling processes that facilitate the conversion of different plastic waste into high quality resources, capable of meeting the specifications demanded by the most demanding secondary raw material markets. The aim was to generate knowledge so that the industrial fabric would have at its disposal knowledge and technology to make a better, more sustainable and circular use of plastic materials.

At the end of the project, it has achieved the proposed objective. It has successfully managed to define the procedures so that, through chemical recycling and from different streams of complex plastic waste, which are currently sent to landfill, products can be developed that reach the necessary quality to be re-integrated into the production cycles in the plastics, chemical and refining industries.

The results obtained include the following:

The combination of solvolysis and product purification processes to obtain monomers and precursors to manufacture new polyesters and polyurethanes.
The integration of pyrolysis and separation processes to obtain hydrocarbon fractions to manufacture new polyolefins and adsorbent materials.
The development of two-stage gasification processes to generate hydrogen gas from plastic waste
The opening of new process routes such as biorecycling, using micro-organisms or enzymes.
The extension of the new processes to families of plastic waste that are hardly recycled at present, such as thermoset composites.

On the other hand, through the life cycle analysis study, it has been possible to verify the environmental improvement brought about by the new chemical recycling processes developed. The reduction of negative impacts, both on people and on the natural environment, has been confirmed, compared to the dumping practices currently applied to complex plastic waste.

NEOPLAST 2 has been a project funded by the Basque Government, in its ELKARTEK programme of aid for fundamental collaborative research (File KK-2023/00060). In addition to the GAIKER Technology Centre, which has acted as coordinator, four other Basque technological agents (the Departments of Chemical Engineering and Chemical and Environmental Engineering of the UPV/EHU, Tecnalia and Polymat) have participated in order to achieve its success and ensure that the Basque industrial fabric can close the cycles of plastic materials, applying chemical recycling technologies to treat their waste and generate valuable products.