Phelix has broken ground on a new large scale chemical recycling facility in Shanghai, China. The plant is designed to process 120,000 tonnes of plastic waste using pyrolysis technology to convert waste back into chemical feedstocks. This project represents a significant scale up in chemical recycling capacity, aiming to reduce plastic waste and lower the carbon footprint of plastic production by diverting materials from landfills and incineration.
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Phelix is starting a 120k tonne pyrolysis plant in Shanghai. It is a big move for chemical recycling, but the article does not mention where the feedstock is coming from or if they have guaranteed off-take agreements for the output.
Pyrolysis is energy intensive. I wonder what the power draw is for a facility this size and if the local grid in Shanghai can handle the load without relying on coal heavy backup. Do we have the actual energy balance per tonne of plastic?
Energy costs will make or break this. If they are not integrating waste heat recovery into the plant design, the operational costs will be huge. It is easy to break ground, but harder to keep the plant running profitably.
The real question is how this fits into China's national plastic waste regulations. If there are no mandates for recycled content in new plastics, these plants struggle to compete with virgin resin prices unless there is a heavy subsidy.
