Ineos Styrolution (Frankfurt / Germany; www.ineos-styrolution.com) and plastics recycling company Agilyx (Tigard, Oregon / USA; www.agilyx.com) are progressing plans to develop a chemical recycling plant for polystyrene in Channahon, Illinois / USA. The facility will use Agilyx’s proprietary chemical recycling technology and be capable of processing up to 100 t per day of post-consumer PS, converting it back into styrene for re-use in new PS products.

Agilyx has recently qualified the styrene from its technology to Ineos’ specifications and identified the required post-consumer PS feedstock. The next phase of the project advances the plant’s engineering and design.

Ricardo Cuetos, vice president of Ineos Styrolution Americas, standard products, added that the plant “will dramatically increase recycling rates in the greater Chicago area, dispelling the myth that polystyrene can’t be recycled.” Ineos Styrolution announced in July that it had entered into multiple collaborations centred on advancing the chemical recycling of PS – see Plasteurope.com of 11.07.2019. Last month, Agilyx said it was opening new offices in the US and Northern Europe as it expands operations – see Plasteurope.com of 21.11.2019.