Scaling up chemical recycling: OMV successfully starts-up new ReOil® plant

At OMV’s ReOil plant, the planned process capacity is 16,000 tonnes of end-of-life plastic per year using this innovative method.

How does it work?
ReOil gives post-consumer plastics (or PCPs) a second life, taking them out of waste streams where they would otherwise be incinerated or go to landfill. Primarily, we use PCPs that aren’t suitable for traditional mechanical recycling methods.
At the plant, these plastics are processed into pyrolysis oil which is then purified and refined. The oil is sent directly to a different part of the refinery, where it can be turned into monomers like ethylene and propylene. ReOil send these to our customers and partners along the value chain, such as Borealis, to produce brand-new plastics, helping to close the loop in plastic production.

Crucially, plastics produced from chemically recycled products have the same quality and purity as those produced from fossil resources. That means they can be used in a wide range of applications, including products with high safety requirements like food packaging or medical equipment – all while reducing the use of fossil fuels.

The ReOil plant
The start-up of the plant is the latest step in the technology’s long-running development. It builds on the impressive progress already made at the smaller ReOil pilot plant, as well as initial tests made at laboratory scale from as early as 2009.

The plant is able to process 2 tonnes of end-of-life plastic every hour, making it one of the biggest chemical recycling plants in Europe. “Its integration within the Schwechat refinery brings other unique advantages”, explains Andreas Lechleitner, Senior Expert in Circular Economy Innovation at OMV, “we leverage infrastructural synergies, ensure the safe handling of pyrolysis oil, and seamlessly integrate it into the material cycle for production of plastic.”

Manfred Scharner, ReOil Project Director adds: “With this plant, we will prove that ReOil can work at scale. At the same time, just like the pilot plant, it will provide us with important learnings to prepare the technology for the next phase of its development.” AT

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