Circular economy

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Hoop®, the circle, symbol par excellence of circularity: this is the name of the Versalis project to develop a new technology for the chemical recycling of plastic waste.

The initiative was launched through a joint development agreement with the Italian engineering company Servizi di Ricerche e Sviluppo (S.R.S), owner of a pyrolysis (thermochemical decomposition of polymers) technology. This technology is being further developed to transform mechanically non-recyclable waste into raw material to produce polymers with the same characteristics as virgin ones.

We have planned to build an initial 6,000-ton-per-year demonstration plant, with the objective of a subsequent progressive scale-up starting with plants in Italy.

Closely related to the topic of polymer recycling, we constantly devote resources to the search for new opportunities to diversify the feedstock for our products, through the exploration of the use of raw materials from renewable sources such as solid and liquid biomasses of vegetable origin, and from secondary raw materials from, for example, recycled plastic waste.

In this context, we have developed Balance®, the new Versalis product range made from alternative raw materials used alongside conventional ones:

• Balance® BA  (Bio-Attributed) from bio-naphtha obtained from vegetable oils
• Balance® BCA (Bio-Circular Attributed) from bio-circular naphtha obtained from by-products or waste of biological origin, such as used cooking oil
• Balance® CA (Circular-Attributed) from pyrolysis oils obtained from the chemical recycling of plastic waste that cannot be mechanically recycled.

The new Versalis certified ISCC PLUS* product family includes monomers, intermediates and polymers (polyethylene, polystyrene and elastomers), from bio-naphtha and chemical recycling, with specific sustainable characteristics depending on the starting raw materials and with identical performance, quality and properties to standard products, with the same chemical composition and physical-mechanical performance.

The availability of bio-naphtha comes from integration with Eni, which has transformed two refineries into biorefineries, in Porto Marghera,  Venice, and in Gela (Sicily), guaranteeing the procurement of sustainable raw materials originating from vegetable oils, used edible oils or other types of organic waste.

*ISCC PLUS is part of the International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC) scheme. It is voluntary in nature and allows companies throughout the supply chain to monitor and be able to demonstrate the sustainability of their products by checking sustainability, traceability and mass balance requirements.

We are increasingly committed to strengthening our competitive position in renewable chemicals, creating synergies between research projects and developing integrated technological platforms.

Read more on Chemistry from renewables

In synergy with the development of Versalis Revive® EPS, we joined an initiative to collect post-consumer coffee cups from the refreshment areas of Eni buildings in San Donato Milanese. Thanks to the cooperation with COREPLA, the National Consortium for the collection, recycling and recovery of plastic packaging, and the Municipal Company AMSA, this collection allows the production of a selected secondary raw material, which is currently used in the Versalis plant of Mantua for the production of expandable polystyrene for insulation panels and protective packaging for household appliances and furniture.

The RiVending project represents an example of a virtuous chain of mechanical recycling and is also potentially scalable and exportable for several types of plastic products for short-life applications, thereby configuring itself as a system destined in the future to provide significant volumes of selected secondary raw materials. This initiative involves all employees by spreading culture and raising awareness of circularity issues.

We have joined the “Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW)”, a non-profit organization with the aim of investing $1.5 billion over five years to implement concrete solutions to the problem of plastic waste and in particular pollution of the marine environment. The Alliance promotes projects and collaborations in four key areas:

• development of infrastructure to collect and manage waste and to increase recycling rates
• support for innovation to propose and implement new technologies that facilitate the recycling and recovery of plastics, generating value from already used plastics
• training and involvement of governments, companies and communities to mobilise action by all stakeholders
• cleaning of the areas with the highest concentration of plastic waste already present in the environment, with a special focus on the main dispersal channels, such as rivers that transport it to the sea

In addition, we are members of the following industry associations:

• Cefic
• PlasticsEurope
• SCS
• PCEP