Honeywell announced the commercialization of a process that reportedly expands the types of plastics that can be recycled and can produce feedstock used to make recycled plastics with a lower carbon footprint. The company’s UpCycle Process Technology utilizes molecular conversion, pyrolysis and contaminants management technology to convert waste plastic back to Honeywell Recycled Polymer Feedstock, which is then used to create new plastics. The UpCycle Process technology is said to include waste plastic that would otherwise go unrecycled, including colored, flexible, multi-layered packaging and polystyrene. When used in conjunction with other chemical and mechanical recycling processes — along with improvements to collection and sorting — Honeywell says its new process has the potential to increase the amount of global plastic waste that can be recycled to 90%.

"Plastics play an important role in our society, including expanding the shelf life of food and making vehicles lighter, which reduces their emissions. Unfortunately, only a fraction of plastics today can be successfully recycled," says Vimal Kapur, president and chief executive officer of Honeywell Performance Materials and Technologies. "Honeywell's UpCycle process helps fix this problem. By broadening the types of plastic that can be recycled, UpCycle will revolutionize the plastics economy and play a critical role in improving the sustainability of many of the products we use on a daily basis."

Sacyr, a Spain-based global engineering and services company with operations in more than 20 countries worldwide, will be the first to deploy Honeywell's proprietary UpCycle Process Technology. Honeywell and Sacyr will form a joint venture where the two companies will co-own and operate a facility in Andalucía, in Southern Spain, with a capacity to transform 30,000 metric tons per year of mixed waste plastics into Honeywell Recycled Polymer Feedstock. Production is expected to begin in 2023.

"Our partnership with Honeywell will enable Sacyr to bring sustainable, circular solutions to market," says Domingo Jiménez, manager of Sacyr Circular. "The speed with which we can start up plants and the global viability of this solution has the potential to greatly accelerate the impact we can have on the communities we serve, the environment, and society as a whole."

Honeywell's UpCycle Process Technology was created within Honeywell's Sustainable Technology Solutions (STS) group, which is part of Honeywell UOP.

Visit www.honeywell.com for more information.