The VTT Technical Research Center in Espoo, Finland, claims that after four decades of developing thermal conversion technology, it is now prepared to commercialize a method that “can affordably convert most of the world’s waste plastics back to usable virgin grade materials an infinite number of times.”
VTT claims to have eight patent applications for the Olefy technology and will start launching it in October.
Its intentions include establishing a new business named Olefy Technologies to implement the cutting-edge technique that, according to VTT, “can extract over 70% virgin grade polymers and chemical raw material components from plastic waste.”
According to VTT, “The novel process can be completed in one step, significantly decreasing the cost of plastic recycling and making recycling a preferred choice for significant quantities of landfill-bound plastic waste that present technologies are unable to treat.”
According to the study center, mechanical recycling has drawbacks, including some recovered plastic that “cannot be used in food packaging and pharma applications.”
“With Olefy, it is economically feasible to recycle the majority of the world’s plastics with little sorting by consumers and businesses,” continues VTT. “The possibility to acquire virgin quality plastic from previously worthless plastic waste.”
“Olefy is a quantum leap in recycling that will revolutionize how the world views plastic by making it genuinely circular and pushing us towards carbon neutrality even faster,” says Antti Vasara, CEO of VTT.
One benefit of the Olefy method, according to a researcher at VTT, is that it makes it possible to recycle plastic indefinitely.This unlimited recycling aspect is revolutionary just as Melt Filters technology uses many advanced technologies for recycling.
According to Matti Nieminen, head of technology at Olefy, one issue with present recycling techniques is that plastic quality deteriorates with each recycling cycle. “The quality degrades too much after a number of mechanical recycling cycles, rendering the plastic unusable and sent to a landfill.
With the Olefy recycling process, the plastic’s quality is equal to that of virgin grade, allowing for endless recycling and eliminating the requirement for landfill-bound products. In essence, Olefy will enable plastic to be a genuine component of the circular economy.
Additionally, Olefy’s revolutionary technology minimizes the requirement for naphtha feedstock and has the ability to generate its own energy for use in the recycling process.The recycling technology Laser Filters also eases the process of recycling in all sorts of plastics and is used in the field of recycling technologies.
According to Nieminen, “the economic advantages of having virgin quality components made from recycled materials can radically shift the dynamic of world oil use.”
At the VTT Bioruukki Pilot Center in Espoo, Finland, an operational Olefy pilot is in operation. The recently founded Olefy Technologies company is presently negotiating with investors, considering collaborations, and growing up its business and licensing its technologies. According to VTT, the first industrial demonstration operation should be operational by 2026.
The gasification-based Olefy method is tolerant of impurities in the feed and is based on gasification. According to VTT, “this entails easier preparation of the feed before the Olefy operation.”
