OMV to build chemical recycling demo plant

OMV to build chemical recycling demo plant

London, 20 December (Argus) — Austria-based OMV will build a chemical recycling demonstration plant integrated with its 200,000 b/d Schwechat refinery.

The plant will have a nameplate capacity of 16,000 t/yr and is scheduled to start-up in early-2023, the firm said today. It will use OMV's ReOil technology for chemical recycling of post-consumer-plastic into synthetic crude. The project will be financed using 'green' loans, but OMV did not disclose a precise figure.

The development is the latest in OMV's ambition to develop a commercial scale ReOil plant by 2026, with a nameplate capacity of up to 200,000 t/yr. In 2018, it had partnered with Austria-based petrochemicals producer Borealis — in which it owns a 75pc controlling stake — to enhance its presence in the chemical recycling space. OMV also supplies ethylene and propylene to Borealis' polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) plants at Schwechat.