Long life to plastic! · June 19, 2017 OUTDOOR Friedrichshafen 3 Who cares: plastics waste in the...

1June 19,2017OUTDOORFriedrichshafen

Long life to [email protected]


Why:gr3n vision and mission

VisionEliminate the issue of plastics waste on a global basis

MissionOffer to plastic producers and to waste recyclers a profit way to treat plastic waste,

enabling its chemical recycling and closing its life cycle:“No-more reuse but just recycle!”

If you share our vision, help us to build gr3n, help us to build a dream!


Who cares: plastics waste in the news

“Our goal is to send zero waste to landfill”“100% circularity; go beyond recycling and completely change the way fashion is made and used.”“Since we launched our garment collecting initiative in 2013, we have gathered more than 22,000 tonnes

of garments to give them a new life – that’s as much fabric as in 100 million t-shirts”

“Integrating recycled plastics into products can be very difficult for manufacturers because there is no strong market for these materials.” “Growing number of reports about marine litter:

micro-plastics could enter the food chain.” “Stepping up plastic waste prevention, preparation for re-use, recycling and separate plastic waste collection, are all essential contributors to help

achieve ‘zero plastic to landfill’ and move to a circular economy”

“Some of these projects involve developing “zero liquid discharge” plants to ensure optimum recycling of water resources, and the creation of production units for recycled plastic to

secure supply source. Other circular economy projects are also in the pipeline.”“DANONE & VEOLIA IN SEARCH OF SOLUTIONS FOR PET RECYCLING IN INDONESIA”

“We call for a landfill ban of all recyclable and recoverable post-consumer waste by 2025, aligned with modern sorting infrastructure and improved recycling and recovery in order to exploit the fullest potential of this precious resource”. “The Circular Economy is one of the

means of reaching this overarching objective”


Problem: plastic lifecycle is not closed

• Unlike other materials (i.e. aluminum or glass) PET is reused and not recycled• Each time PET is re-used the quality of its polymers degrades, inevitably leading to landfill or combustion for energy

generation o Multi-phase virgin PET for textile usage (2/3) is almost always landfilled (only 0.25% of post-consumer recovery)o 40% (54% in Europe) of waste bottle-grade virgin PET (1/3) is reused but still, after 1-3 cycles of re-use, is landfilled or burnt

• Around 30.8% of plastics waste, or 8M tons, were landfilled in Europe only in 2014(1)

(1) Source: Plastics Europe, Association of Plastics Manufacturers – “Plastics: the Facts 2015”

Virgin PET production

Amorphous PET

Solid-state PET 60Mt/yr

40Mt/yr

20Mt/yr

45Mt/yr

21Mt/yr

Polyester fibers

PET bottles

Post-consumer recovery

0.1Mt/yr

8.4Mt/yr

Landfill / Energy recovery

60Mt/yr


Reusing Technology: state of the art technology limits


Solution: chemical recycling


Solution:gr3n technology!

• gr3n invented a new process, which enables the chemical recycling of plastics• The technology applies to several plastics: PET – polyester, polycarbonate, polyamide – Nylon, …• Full de-polymerization of all treatable PET waste in approximately 10 minutes• Minimum productivity for single reactor of 16.5 kg/h of PET (15 kt/year for a 100-reactors plant)• Under 2 kWh/kg of energy consumption• Target cost of PET equivalent from monomers: €450-700/t vs. current cost >€800/t


Enabling technology: circular economy

VirginPETproduction

1st consumergoods

productionCollectionandsorting

2nd consumergoods

production

Monomersrefinementfrom

oil/gas

Landfielddisposition/Ince

neration


Environmental impact:LCA

PTAANDEGPRODUCTION(perkgofPET)

PTAANDEGbygr3nPROCESS(perkgofPET)

NETREDUCTION

(%)

CLOSINGLOOPCONTRIBUTION

(avoidinginceneration)

NETREDUCTION

(%)

Non-renewable energy requirements (NREU) [MJ] 66.3 21.6 67.4 67.4

Global Warming Potential (GWP) [kg CO2 eq] 2.08 1.28 38.5 -1.05 88.9

• The LCA was performed by Synesis, partner of Symbioptima EU project


Market:Plastics: material of the 21st century

Global production of plastics(1): 311M tonnes in 2014

European plastics demand and production: 48M and 59M tonnes

(1) Source: Plastics Europe, Association of Plastics Manufacturers – “Plastics: the Facts 2015”

From 1.7M tonnes in 19504.5% CAGR in the last 5 years, expected faster growth in next 5

40% of plastic for packagingPET is the second most used: 60M tonnes globally per year

25.8M tonnes of plastics waste collected in Europe in 2014 (ratio 54%)Collecting ratio rapidly and globally increasing: some 40%

60% of global PET production is used for synthetic fibers (polyester)


Market:The target customers

PET producers

Rationale

Mechanical recyclers

Sportswear brand

Waste collectors

Economical benefit

• Reduce Raw Material price• Reduce oil&gas market volatility on supplying

• Obtain ready to polymerize material

• +€80/ton PET• Increase margin by 48%

• Ability to treat colored waste• Ability to treat production scraps (PET powder)

• +€74/ton PET• Enable profitable treatment of colored PET

• Diversify sources of revenues• Integrate vertically one step of the value chain • +€35/ton PET

• Reduce Raw Material price• Ability to treat production scraps

(polyester)• Enhance brand equity

• +€326/ton polyester


Customers’ rationale(1):Sportswear brand

R-PET mixed flakes€768/t

Margin+€326/t

(1) Source for prices: ICIS, October 2015. Oil price was $48/b; when oil price is higher margins, and thus benefit, will expand

IN OUT

• A typical Fashion brand can: a) buy/produce fabrics made with mixed color R-PET flakes, which costs some €768/t or b) set up a gr3n plant and buy/produce fabrics recycling its production scraps and post consumer clothes, setting up a collecting chain in its stores, for a cost of €442/t

• In this way the Fashion brand would not only save €326/t on polyester supplying…• … but will be the first and sole completely environmental friendly brand in fashion industry!

+ €326/tProduction scraps€0/t

Recycled polyester clothes

€0/t

New polyester clothes

NA

MarginNA

Sportswear brand

gr3nProcess€442/t


What you give:Strengthening brand equity!

• Beyond the economical saving on raw material available thanks to gr3n technology (see annexes), a brand using polyester fabric could propose a paradigm shift in the way its environmental impact from production is perceived by final customers(1)

• Post consumer polyester clothes (also from competitors brands!) could be collected at the stores offering discounts on brand new products, thus increasing loyalty in the consumers

• The brand would exploit increase brand equity and revenues in one fell swoop!(1) “Fashion Is the Second Dirtiest Industry in the World, Next to Big Oil”, Greenpeace Detox campaign

Waste target achievement“Empowering imagination”


Competition:gr3n clear advantage

Polymer grade raw material

PET Waste treatment

Lower carbon footprint

Reduced raw material price

Close PET lifecycle

Colored material

Coupled polymers and fabrics

Reduced intrinsic viscosity(not usable for all applications)

Produce only virgin material grade. Do not provide any

solution for waste treatment

gr3n technology: solution for plastic waste!

Monomers’ producers Mechanical recyclers

Not effective as gr3n


Business Model:tiered technology provider

Assembly Service LicenseEPC

Contractor

Waste collectors

Mechanical recyclers

PET producers

• gr3n will continuously develop, assembly and sell microwave reactors• Servicing of the installed base and licensing of the process will provide stream of revenues• Microwave reactors are the core technology of recycling plant supplied by EPC contractors to future

potential customers• EPC contractor(1), PET producer(1) and Mechanical recycler already expressed interest in gr3n

technology(1) Both are already part of Symbioptima consortium for the realization of the reactor


When:gr3n timeline

2011• gr3n idea tested in LAB• Batch process• Patent

2012-14• Microwave reactor• Continuous process• Patent extension

2015-18• Testing full scale

reactor

2021• Industrial plant in JV

with mechanical recycler and PET producer

LAB PRE-PILOT REACTOR PILOT REACTOR INDUSTRIAL PLANT

Swiss Incubator 2nd Italian place European finalist

Enrolled in KTI program Awarded KTI label Horizon 2020 projects

2017-20PILOT PLANT

• Testing full scale plant• Validating all the

ancillary systems


Thank you

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020-SPIRE-2015 research andinnovation program under grant agreement No 680426, SYMBIOPTIMA. This paper reflects only the author'sview. The Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

Long life to plastic! · June 19, 2017 OUTDOOR Friedrichshafen 3 Who cares: plastics waste in the...

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