PolyStyrene Loop: Retrieving Bromine
Launching of the PolyStyreneLoop Project: Circular Economy in Action
The project is an essential contribution to the EU’s efforts to develop a sustainable, low carbon, resource efficient and competitive economy.”
Mr. Paolo Sandri
ICL is one of the initiators of the PolyStyrene Loop (PSL)recycling project. This project contributes to the ‘circular economy’ by introducing a recycling scheme for PS foams containing HBCD. These foams have been long used as building insulation and also as packaging material. A physico-chemical recycling process can now preserve the high quality PS, to be used as raw material for new foams and safely remove the flame retardant HBCD from PS foam. The HBCD is destructed in our own hazardous waste incinerator at ICL Terneuzen, equipped with a Bromine Recovery Unit (BRU). This facility ensures the safe recovery of the valuable bromine component. The recovered Bromine is re-used for producing new polymeric flame retardants like FR-122P, or again in producing PS foams for insulation. \
Polystyrene (PS) foams are known for their outstanding insulation and shock absorbing abilities. They are well tried and tested for use in various applications. Used PS foams remain a valuable material source for new raw material and for a variety of products. In the packaging sector, there are already many successful recycling systems in place throughout Europe.
However, PS foams contain HBCD, a flame retardant that has been used in foam insulation boards since the 1960s. HBCD has been the best solution to ensure safety in case of fire and to meet national fire regulations for many years. However, HBCD is now considered as a restricted substance. It can therefore no longer be reused. Millions of tonnes of PS foam waste can no longer be regularly recycled.
The innovative PSL project employs a ground-breaking technology to extract the recently restricted chemical, HBCD, from PS foam waste while also allowing for the recovery of bromine, which can then be used again for the production of new flame retardants like the alternative FR-122P produced in ICL Terneuzen and Neot-Hovav. This technology has already been included in the Technical guidelines under the UNEP Basel Convention as a best available recycling technology to handle HBCD-containing waste.
The PSL project goal is to simultaneously enable the recycling of PS foam waste, the treatment of HBCD residues, and the recovery of bromine in line with the new POP regulations. This will be accomplished through an innovative recycling process of 3000 tonnes of PS per year, and through organizing the value chain by means of a collaborative model, which will hopefully trigger further replication throughout Europe.
The PolyStyrene Loop large-scale demo plant aims to begin operations in 2019 and will have the capacity to treat up to 3,300 tonnes of PS waste per year. Once up and running, the PolyStyrene Loop project will be able to cope with incoming PS foam waste streams and produce high-quality recyclate that could be used in new PS foam insulation installations. The planned demonstration plant will be in Terneuzen, Netherlands, adjacent to the ICL site, and will work with the CreaSolv® Technology.
It encourages industry-led and market-based initiatives to be carried out with all partners along the value chain. It is a signal to other polymer producers that the cooperation can lead to more circularity and sustainability.
Mr. Paolo Sandri speaking on behalf of the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs of the European Commission.
The PolyStyrene Loop Cooperative is a non-profit organization, initiated by ICL and Synbra Technology under Dutch law. More than 60 members of the initiative are industry representatives from the whole polystyrene foam value chain, many of them are SMEs (small-medium enterprises): PS foam manufacturers, raw material and additives suppliers, foam converters, and recyclers. The initiative was set up to demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of recycling polystyrene (PS) insulation foam waste and the recovery of bromine. The PolyStyrene Loop project demonstrates how the polystyrene value chain meets the fundamental requirements of a circular economy, by ensuring a technically, economically and environmentally sustainable closed-loop recycling system.
