Page 84 from: Recycling International May issue | 2022

84

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US-KOREAN PARTNERSHIP CLAIMS ‘ULTRA
CLEAN’ POLYPROPYLENE
The manufacture and recovery of plastics in Europe need signifi-
cant changes to meet long-term circularity and net zero emis-
sion targets, according to a new report. The authors say the
next three to five years are ‘a critical window for action’.
The use of a solvent achieves what PureCycle calls ‘Ultra Pure
Recycled Polypropylene’. Its first recycling plant, with an annual
capacity of 50 000 tonnes, is scheduled to be completed in Ohio in
the fourth quarter of this year. Construction on a second plant, in
Georgia with total capacity of 300 000 tonnes, is due to begin this
month.
SK Geo Centric is one of the parties to an equity investment round
that raked in EUR 228 million. Its involvement is part of a larger
strategy to jointly push for global business expansion in China and
Asia.
As an example, the partners are planning to launch a joint venture
to build a 60 000 tonnes a year recycling facility in Ulsan-Mipo
Industrial Park, along the coast of Korea, by late 2024. This deal
gives SK Geo Centric an exclusive right to sell the recycled PP in
Asia.
‘We will secure three key differentiated technologies for chemical
advanced recycling, including pyrolysis and depolymerisation tech-
nologies, and accelerate the establishment of the circular economy
for plastics through creating a recycle cluster in Ulsan,’ says Na
Kyung-soo, ceo of SK Geo Centric.
PP currently accounts for 25% of the world’s demand for plastics.

PureCycle’s technol-
ogy is said to yield
an output to match
the quality of virgin
plastics and recycling
PP reduces the
amount of plastic
scrap ending up in
landfill and incinera-
tor plants.

BASF AND NEVEON BED DOWN ON
MATTRESSES
Chemical company BASF and foam specialist Neveon are
working together to establish a closed product loop for
mattresses.
Discarded mattresses are typically thermally recycled or sent to
landfill. This year, the partners plan a pilot to recover recycled
foam from collected mattresses. The next step will be to develop
this recycling to a larger scale.
BASF is developing a wet chemical process for used mattresses
made from flexible polyurethane and says initial small-scale trials
have been very promising. The original polyols can be recovered
from the mattress foam and used again to produce high-quality
flexible foam blocks.
The quality of these blocks is equivalent to those made using con-
ventional materials from fossil sources. It means new high-quality
mattresses can be produced from this alternative polyurethane.
One big step towards a closed cycle, which starts with the eco-
design of the mattress product, is the systematic collection and
return of old mattresses. To simplify this, Neveon launched
‘Rematress’, a mattress take-back pilot, in Berlin in February. It is
to be extended in the coming months to other German states.
‘For the recycling of mattresses, cooperation at all stages along
the value chain is crucial,’ explains Sven Crone, responsible for
the European business for isocyanates and precursors at BASF.
‘Together with Neveon, we want to build a partner network and
close the loop step by step.’
Neveon ceo Oliver Bruns adds: ‘The future bears the name circu-
lar economy. As an industry, we need to drive the transformation
to a circular system where products at the end of their life cycle
are not waste but valuable raw material and feedstock for new
products. I am therefore pleased to make an important contribu-
tion here together with BASF and other partners.’

SCIAPS’S NEW XRF HANDHELD SIMPLIFIES
LEAD PAINT

SciAps has devel-
oped the world’s
first handheld XRF
not to use radioac-
tive isotopes for
detecting high lev-
els of lead paint in
homes. ‘This greatly
reduces the regula-
tory burden of
owning and control-

ling radioactive materials and eliminating costly isotope
replacement,’ the company says.
The SciAps X-550 Pb handheld analyser utilises X-ray spectros-
copy with an X-ray tube and silicon drift detector instead of
radioactive isotopes to measure lead in paint for compliance
with US regulations.
The national housing and urban development, in tandem with
the Environmental Protection Agency, established a certifica-
tion scheme for XRF equipment known as the Performance
Characteristics Sheet (PCS).
An analysis instrument has the ability to accurately identify
samples as positive or negative according to the federal action
level for residential lead paint, which is 1.0 milligrams of lead
per cm2. SciAps X-550 Pb also has accepted PCS at action lim-
its of 0.7 mg/cm2 and 0.5 mg/cm2.
‘It’s one of only two instruments to achieve this standard and
the only non-isotope instrument ever to hold a PCS at all three
levels. According to the PCS, SciAps X-550 Pb delivered no
false positives, no false negatives, and no inconclusive tests,
even at the 0.5 mg/cm2 level.’
SciAps says users typically replace the decaying radioactive
source every 1-2 years. ‘Our system eliminates the concerns
and limitations of radioactivity, as well as the need to replace
the radioactive isotopes. Users will experience the same analy-
sis speed on day 1 or on day 1 001.’

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