Honeywell converts Low-grade Plastic Waste into High-Quality Oil

By OEM Update Editorial November 18, 2021 5:32 pm IST

Honeywell International Inc., developed a commercially viable method to melt down low-grade plastic waste and turn it back into oil that’s good enough to feed into a refinery.

The maker of chemicals, automation equipment and aircraft parts is teaming up with the Spanish infrastructure company Sacyr SA to build and operate the first plant using the process; a facility they expect will transform 30,000 metric tons annually of mixed plastic trash into refinery feedstock.

Honeywell is using technology it has honed for decades at its UOP unit to weed out impurities in hydrocarbons before they are refined into fuel and plastics, said Gavin Towler, chief technology officer at the company’s Performance Materials & Technologies unit. That’s being combined with automated systems to pick through bales of plastic trash and cull out unwanted materials.

“Now, we’re at the point where the picking technology and the conversion technology can go together,” Towler said in a telephone interview. “We can handle mixed plastic waste. We can make it into high-quality oil.”

Towler declined to disclose the cost of the plant or Honeywell’s ownership stake.