Vow pyrolysis technology confirmed for Horizon Europe plastics-to-olefins programme

The project involves thirteen partners from seven countries and is planned for a five-year duration (2022-2027). Its total budget is EUR 33.3 million, of which EUR 18 million will be funded by the EU. This project receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 101058032.

The thirteen partners will design, build, and run a demonstration plant for recycling of unsorted plastic waste at a Repsol’s petrochemical site in Spain. The plant will run on 100 percent renewable electric energy and be digitalised to achieve system integration and optimisation.

“We are proud to be included in this programme and enthusiastic about its impact. The project is part of the European Commission’s concrete action plan aimed at transforming the European economy towards a sustainable and circular economy, and to become carbon neutral by 2050. We are also pleased to see this concrete result of our partnership with Repsol, which we announced at the end of 2020,” said Henrik Badin, CEO of Vow ASA.

The plastics-to-olefins project aims to demonstrate a novel plastics recycling process based on high-temperature ETIA Spirajoule pyrolysis technology. Olefins are the basis for an extensive petrochemical industry and have typically been produced from fossil hydrocarbons.

Reducing carbon emissions

The main product of the ETIA process will be a gas stream instead of a liquid. This means that the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by more than 70 percent compared to existing plastics recycling processes for unsorted plastic waste. Compared with the current end-of-life options for these wastes, i.e., incineration, the climate benefits will be even greater, reducing emissions by more than 80 percent.

Partnerships that transform industries

“In many ways, our partnership with Repsol reminds me of relationships we started two decades ago with leading cruise ship operators, and which have brought forward environmental solutions which means that cruise ships today are able to operate without any emission of wastewater to sea”, said Henrik Badin.

Vow has delivered and services clean ship solutions on board 130 cruise ships, some of them among the largest in the world. Among the larger cruise ships, Vow has a market share of around 70 percent, according to company estimates.

“Together with Repsol and other visionary and committed partners, we are developing technologies which have the potential to transform many landbased industries in similar ways and pyrolysis is core in many of these applications. Our pyrolysis solutions are able to handle different types of feedstocks and produce a wide range of circular carbon products and CO2 neutral energy,” Badin said.

Versatile technology

In Norway, Vow is currently delivering equipment to Europe’s largest biocarbon plant, which is being built and will be operated by Vow Green Metals, a company which was originally launched by Vow, and which is now a separate company. The biocarbon will be used by Elkem, a leading advanced materials company as reduction agent in its metallurgical processes.

In the US, Vow recently secured a contract to deliver a pyrolysis solution for production of CO2 neutral energy and biochar for soil improvements. In France, the company is working with Europe’s second largest gas distributor, GRTgaz, to qualify pyrolysis gas as replacement for fossil natural gas in the European gas grid. And elsewhere in Europe, Vow is working with Vow Green Metals and an undisclosed metals producer to qualify its pyrolysis solution for production of advanced biocarbon which could replace fossil coal as reduction agent for production of non-ferrous metals.

“These and other ongoing projects are examples of the versatility of our pyrolysis offering and the depth of our competence within this field. With the recent acquisition of C.H. Evensen we added a large-scale pyrolysis reactor to our product range, which from before featured ETIA’s Biogreen solution and Scanship’s MAP, a microwave assisted pyrolysis solution,” Badin explained.