Agilyx Corp. has announced an April 19, 2018, ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the opening of what it calls the world’s first commercial scale polystyrene-scrap-to-styrene oil chemical recycling plant. The oil is not a fuel, but instead is intended to be reintroduced into the polystyrene (PS) production process.

The April ceremony will be held at the Tigard, Oregon, facility to “launch a week of celebrations, including plant tours by invitation from April 24-26, 2018,” according to the firm.

“The company has been converting [scrap] mixed plastics into crude oil since 2005 and the expansion of our platform to chemically recycle polystyrene (PS) [scrap] back to monomers is a significant advancement to circular economy solutions and a milestone achievement for our company,” says Joe Vaillancourt, CEO of Agilyx. “Polystyrene is a very versatile, cost-effective and valuable polymer used in our everyday lives. However, it is one of the least recycled materials in today’s recycling programs. We are proud to have commercialized the first chemical recycling solution creating a more sustainable end-of-life solution for polystyrene.”

The worldwide consumption of PS is approximately 16 million tons and is expected to grow to 17.5 million tons by 2019, according to Agilyx. In the United States just 1.3 percent of PS is currently recycled, the firm also indicates.

Agilyx is billing the Oregon plant as “the first commercial-scale closed loop chemical recycling process for polystyrene in the world.” The plant has been designed to recycle up to 10 tons per day of PS scrap to produce styrene oil. The oil can be used by styrene manufacturers AmSty and INEOS Styrolution for processing and blending into virgin polystyrene streams used for manufacturing consumer goods, according to Agilyx.

» Publication Date: 27/02/2018

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