Finnish petrochemical supplier Neste (Espoo; www.neste.com) said it has made the final decision to fund the construction of facilities for upgrading liquefied plastics waste at the refinery at its domestic site in Porvoo.

The EUR 111 mn in planned spending to enhance 150,000 t/y of liquefied waste plastics is part of a broader project that has received an EU Innovation Fund grant of EUR 135 mn and aims for a capacity of 400,000 t/y.

Upgrading is one of the three processing steps – along with pretreatment and refining – for turning liquefied waste plastics into high-quality feedstock for new plastics.

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Required preparation work in Porvoo was completed in the first half of 2023, the company said, so construction could start immediately. The facility is planned to be “finalised” in the first half of 2025, Neste announced.

The project will leverage existing assets through retrofitting as part of scaling up chemical recycling, the company said. The upgraded liquefied waste plastics is to be processed in the conventional refinery and replace a portion of the fossil resources processed there.