Envalior is working with SECARA, which specialises in the development of industrial-scale solutions for closed-loop polymer recycling. The pair will team up to test and validate pathways to incorporate high-quality post-consumer-recycled (PCR) content into technical material grades based on SECARA’s catalytic depolymerisation process.
Envalior
Envalior collaborates with SECARA to deliver PCR content for automotive applications
“Circularity is one of the defining shifts facing the automotive industry, and it can only be solved through strong partnerships across the value chain,” said Christophe Cazabeau, EVP Performance Materials at Envalior. “With SECARA, we want to explore early what a scalable, high-performance circular pathway could look like and ensure Envalior is ready to support our customers as the ELV requirements take place.”
The collaboration will be most relevant to automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers seeking scalable material solutions that are compliant with the European Commission’s End-of-Life Vehicles Regulation (ELVR). The regulation mandates that at least 15% of the plastic used in new vehicles must come from recycled-based sources six years after entry into force, rising to 25% after 10 years. 20% of this recycled content must come from closed-loop sources, meaning material recovered from end-of-life vehicles or from parts removed during a vehicle’s use phase.
“Due to technical/quality constraints, mechanical recycling alone is insufficient to meet the ELVR closed-loop requirements in demanding applications,” said Artur Völk, Circular and Low-Carbon Solutions Lead at Envalior. “SECARA’s chemical recycling solution therefore offers a promising way forward to effectively balance advanced performance properties and regulatory compliance.”
The company’s depolymerisation process breaks down technical polymers into their component molecules, allowing SECARA to overcome traditional obstacles to ELV recyclability.
“Our recycling process is designed to handle the large industrial mixed-waste streams containing material inclusions such as glass fibres, flame-retardants and other additives or contaminations. We selectively break up the target polymers in those waste streams and transform them into drop-in quality monomers”, said Fabian Nagel, CEO at SECARA. “By addressing the challenge of mixed waste streams, our recovery route can deliver a scalable platform that we believe can be a cost-competitive solution for upcoming circularity requirements as well as a core pillar of the resilient and sustainable technical polymer industry of the future.”
The collaboration will initially focus on PCR-derived caprolactam for PA6. From the start, the development has focused on achieving the right balance between cost-efficiency and caprolactam purity to deliver the same high performance as virgin PA6. This has allowed SECARA to deliver monomers of drop-in quality, designed to be fed directly into existing polymerisation processes.