After an almost seven-year test phase with its pilot plant in Istanbul, Synpet (Brussels; www.synpet.com) has acquired sufficient experience to venture into constructing a commercial plant for the chemical recycling of plastics waste. Turkish plant builder Enka has announced plans to construct the line in Antwerp, Belgium, for EUR 100 mn. 

In presenting the plans, Synpet CEO Cem Ozsuer specified a processing capacity of 180,000 t/y. As much as 150,000 t/y pyrolysis oil is to be obtained from this by the company’s proprietary Thermal Conversion Process (TCP). With an eye to the expected growth and the implementation of the technology in practice, Synpet recently appointed Furkan Ahmet Callialp as COO. 

A significant part of the investment will doubtless come from the partnership with mineral oil trader Kolmar (Zug, Switzerland; www.kolmargroup.com) which, from 2025 onwards, intends to market the initial quantities of pyrolysis oil worldwide as a naphtha substitute. Kolmar has purchased shares in Synpet to this end. The number of shares has not, however, been disclosed. If the Antwerp plant gets off to a successful start, Synpet intends to build further production plants and boost the volume of waste plastics processed worldwide to 720,000 t/y. The company currently operates a pilot plant with a capacity of 15 t/y TCP oil at its development centre in Sancaktepe, some 50 km east of Istanbul. 

Kolmar is using investments of this kind to sharpen its own profile as a supplier of renewable fuels and sustainably produced raw materials for petrochemicals. Apart from its trading business of approximately 6 mn t/y, the group, which according to latest information is worth around EUR 11.5 bn, also operates biofuel plants in the US among other things.