Catalysts and adsorbents solutions to enable plastics recycling

BASF launches PuriCycle®, a new line of advanced high-performance products for the purification of most complex waste plastics pyrolysis feeds. The PuriCycle portfolio includes novel catalysts and adsorbents developed to selectively remove or convert a wide range of impurities in pyrolysis oils and enable downstream processing of circular plastics streams. PuriCycle can help customers meet industry compositional compliance standards, benefit from high efficiency purification and upgrading solutions, and increase their flexibility in the chemical recycling process of plastics.   

PuriCycle purifies pyrolysis oils, a secondary raw material obtained from the chemical recycling of plastic waste that is fed into the production process for new plastics at the beginning of the value chain. Purification of pyrolysis oils obtained from waste plastics is among the most demanding technical tasks in chemical plastics recycling. Impurities, such as halogen, nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur compounds but also higher levels of reactive components such as dienes, complicate the downstream use and impose strict limitations on the further processing of such streams in the production of new materials.

“With our PuriCycle portfolio, we are in a very strong position to make a difference in chemical plastics recycling and to enable plastics circularity. The ability of the PuriCycle products to purify the most challenging pyrolysis oil streams is a major contribution to help closing the plastics loop, minimizing waste and ultimately opening up new feedstocks for the chemical industry”, said Detlef Ruff, Senior Vice President, Process Catalysts at BASF.