Freepoint Eco-Systems plans 190,000 tonnes/year pyrolysis facility in US gulf

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Freepoint Eco-Systems LLC has announced a partnership with Alterra to develop a large pyrolysis-based chemical recycling facility in the US Gulf Coast Region.

Though operational timing was not disclosed, this facility will have the capacity to process 190,000 tonnes/year of waste plastic, one of the highest volumes yet announced.

The facility will utilise Alterra’s proprietary thermochemical liquefaction process technology. Currently, Alterra operates a 20,000 tonnes/year pyrolysis facility in Akron, Ohio.

The recycled plastic output from this new proposed facility will be sold exclusively to Shell Chemical to be further processed into circular products.

While circular products, such as waste plastic pyrolysis oil, are in high demand by large petrochemical companies hoping to expand their sustainability footprint, sourcing adequate volumes of waste plastic feedstock for chemical recycling operations continues to be a concern for many in the industry.

With several large facilities starting up in the coming years, access to quality feedstocks that meet cost criteria will become increasingly difficult, as US plastic waste collection infrastructure has yet to see significant improvement.

Freepoint Eco-Systems has already partnered on another large chemical recycling facility to be located in in Texas, potentially in close proximity to this latest planned facility.

This comes shortly after the December announcement that Freepoint Eco-Systems has broken ground on their Hebron, Ohio pyrolysis facility, which is intended to process 90,000 tonnes/year of mixed plastic waste. The facility, originally expected to be operational in 2023, is now slated for start-up by the first half of 2024.