Plastics recycler Polystyvert (Montréal, Québec / Canada; www.polystyvert.com) has opened what it says is the world’s first polystyrene dissolution recycling plant, in Montréal’s Anjou industrial park. The Canadian company claims to be the only one worldwide to recycle polystyrene using a patent-pending dissolution and separation process. This, it asserts, produces a better quality of PS recyclate compared with existing mechanical processes.

The facility with capacity to handle up to 600 t/y of PS at a production rate of 125 kg/h is expected to fill a gap in the recycling landscape, opening the door to chemical recycling of styrenics. Up to now, Polystyvert says, there has been “little or no” recycling of number 6 classification plastics in Québec. The company’s figures show that the province generates almost 92,000 t of PS waste annually, but most of it is buried in landfills, while plastics converters use virgin PS.

According to Polystyvert, its process reduces the environmental footprint of PS because it does not require any water and is operated at low temperature, making it energy efficient. The company’s business model is to supply a concentrator directly to firms that have PS waste to process. As part of the conversion, the polymer is dissolved in a natural essential oil, then separated from the oil and conditioned. The decentralised operating model cuts shipping costs by a factor of 10 while drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the recycler says.

Polystyvert says the process, which includes a purification step to removes all contaminants, produces a recycled resin with properties similar to those of virgin polystyrene. As the recyclate is less expensive to produce than primary PS, it can be used in larger proportions, achieving a sustainable extension of product life cycle.

In June of this year, the Canadian company launched a second round of financing, which generated USD 11m. To drive development of its technology forward on a large scale, Polystyvert recently signed a cooperation agreement with Total Polymers, a subsidiary of French energy group Total (Paris; www.total.com), specifically targeting dissolution and recycling of domestic post-consumer polystyrene – see Plasteurope.com of 14.05.2018.