Market development

Pyrolysis: someone has to start

2 June 2024

Chief Technology Officer

Let's assume you have 100 million dollars in your coffers. You want to use it to buy something that doesn't exist yet. From a company that has never existed before. That's crazy, isn't it? This is the story of an entrepreneur on the other side of the world who was (almost) that crazy.

First pyrolysis plant

Until recently, our first plant on this continent was located in Australia. A pyrolysis plant that produces 1 tonne of oil from mixed plastic. Per day. Soon this plant will be joined by its big sister. With a throughput of 5 tonnes per day. The first of our pyrolysis plants will be installed in Melbourne, at the private waste disposal company APR - Australian Paper Recovery by the end of 2024 to start test operations. The company, which was founded in 2002, has earned a reputation as a market leader and has handled around 1 million tonnes of recyclable products to date, particularly paper, plastic and cardboard.

If we had shown great 3D models and presented some theoretical stuff, a project like this would never have materialised.

The owner, Darren Thorpe , is passionate about the circular economy, especially the circular economy of plastics. But Darren Thorpe wasn't quite crazy enough to spend his money on a grandiose promise or a few great 3D models and some theoretical calculations.

The whole job

With society becoming increasingly aware of the environmental plastic problem, this technology is currently very popular, not only in politics, but also among companies that are heavily advertising it. They all promise the same thing: to produce oil from plastic. But that's not the end of the job.

The pyrolysis of plastics has been practised on a large scale in the USA and Japan for some time. Here in Europe, the chemical recycling of plastics has been a minor topic for the last 20 years.

The reason: the so-called Klut oil, which is produced after pyrolysis. Its use is limited, the price is low and processing it is problematic. What's more, no plastic can be made from Klut oil. It is therefore not a genuine recycling process because it cannot close the plastic cycle.

Making oil from plastic is only half the job if you want to earn money with it.

At the waste disposal company APR in Melbourne, Darren Thorpe knows this too, of course. He has been in the recycling industry for almost 40 years and is therefore an "old hand" in the field. He was looking for a company to do the "whole job" because he wants to bring mixed plastic waste back into the cycle in the future. He was therefore looking for someone who could supply a plant that would produce a circular product that he could sell on without any problems. We were the only ones he could find.

I believe we are the only ones at the moment whose decentralised system delivers this quality.

Index value for naphtha

Among other things, our plant produces a drop-in product which is further processed into a raw material for petrochemical processes. This gives us a so-called commodity product which has an index value and can therefore be traded on various platforms. The special thing about naphtha is that it can be used as a basic chemical for plastic production, thus closing the plastic cycle.

This is exactly what Darren Thorpe wants to do with his company. Our plant supplies an oil that fulfils all the required index values. I believe we are the only ones at the moment whose decentralised system delivers this quality.

Jump start

What ultimately convinced Darren Thorpe to take the plunge with us was our approach. We see it as our job to understand our customers' risks and build solutions for them.

Building in the truest sense of the word: we first built Darren Thorpe a test plant that enabled him to run through the process on a small scale. Together, we pyrolysed the various feedstocks on site and continuously monitored the quality of the oil.

We did not start with the . But we brought the process to a conclusion.

As specialists in the circular economy, we also ensure that the oil finds a local buyer. We create the link to the next partner in the recycling chain. In Melbourne, this is the refinery in Dandenong, which analysed our samples during the test run. The refinery will continue to process the products of APR - Australian Paper Recovery in the future. We are thus ensuring that plastic waste is actually turned back into plastic. A service that, so far, only we offer.

Foundation for the circular economy

We did not start with the pyrolysis of plastic. Nor did we develop the first pyrolysis plant. But we have built on the existing foundations and finalised the process. For Darren Thorpe in Melbourne and for everyone else who wants to earn money with a genuine circular economy.

Author

Ben Richters

Chief Technology Officer

Member of the Board of Directors

After completing his technical training and gaining initial professional experience in the automotive sector, Ben Richters transitioned into mechanical engineering. As a graduate engineer, he shifted his focus to plant engineering, particularly in the field of petrochemical industry. In 2015, he became an entrepreneur in the green tech circular economy industry. He joined enespa in mid-2022 as the developer of the enespa pyrolysis plant prototype. Outside of work, he finds balance in timber construction. He loves spending time with his family at the harbour in Hamburg.

Pyrolysis: someone has to start

First pyrolysis plant

The whole job

Index value for naphtha

Jump start

Foundation for the circular economy

Ben Richters

enespa shares

enespa bonds

Pyrolysis: someone has to start

First pyrolysis plant

The whole job

Index value for naphtha

Jump start

Foundation for the circular economy

Ben Richters

enespa shares

enespa bonds

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