
Germany’s Remscheid, Essen, January 23, 2025 To encourage the chemical recycling of trash made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), Oerlikon Barmag and Evonik have announced their partnership. Both businesses are dedicated to creating technology for reliable and effective purification and depolymerisation procedures, as well as an integrated repolymerization concept and related EPC business models.
Both Evonik and Oerlikon Barmag are top providers in their respective important markets. Oerlikon Barmag, a Remscheid-based producer of machinery and plants, brings to the new collaboration its experience in processing polymers for the creation of chemical fibres and packaging materials. Additionally, the firm has outstanding access to worldwide markets in the polymer processing sector as a key brand of Oerlikon Manmade Fibres Solutions of the Swiss Oerlikon Group.
One of the top producers of speciality chemicals worldwide, Evonik is committed to advancing sustainability programs and creating cutting-edge solutions. Through the use of cutting-edge catalytic processes, the collaboration with Oerlikon Barmag seeks to develop process solutions and technologies for the chemical recycling of PET.
Making an investment for a sustainable future
By the end of this decade, the partners want to have the jointly created chemical recycling technology solution completely launched and commercialised. Plans call for the creation of a worldwide network of development partners as well as the active and intense engagement of other businesses in the ecosystem (including feedstock, technology, and manufacturing).
In addition to driving the next generation of sustainability in the plastics industry, Georg Stausberg, CEO of Oerlikon Manmade Fibres Solutions, states, “We are firmly convinced that with Evonik we gained a strong and experienced partner in the field of speciality chemicals, and together we will establish a significant market position as a total solution provider in the growth market for chemical recycling of PET.”
“This collaboration represents a significant advancement in PET chemical recycling. In order to achieve a high recycled PET content from highly polluted and mixed PET trash that would otherwise be burned or dumped in a landfill, our innovative catalytic processes and chemical technologies will be used in conjunction with the present mechanical recycling technique. We are actively promoting a sustainable circular economy in this way,” stated Max Preisenberger, Evonik’s Head of Catalysts.
smooth incorporation into PET manufacturing procedures
The technique for recycling PET will have several benefits. It is a very effective technique from a chemical standpoint, and it can be easily included into the current PET manufacturing procedures. The main forces behind the development are scalability, investment expenses, and operational costs.
The combination of cooperational know-how in catalyst and process technologies will allow a chemical recycling of polyester materials from many closed- and open-loop sources, which need chemical technology to allow for high, fossil-like recyclate qualities.
Together with Oerlikon Barmag’s market access and PET processing competence, the two firms’ strong and complementary technological know-how and skills create a unique and competitive cooperation in the nascent chemical PET recycling sector. We intend to grow our technology to a large scale and make it available to PET manufacturers and processors worldwide in order to create a circular economy for all sorts of PET trash that are now burnt or landfilled. We will help our clients become more sustainable and support a circular economy in this way,” says Lukas Adamek, Oerlikon Manmade Fibres Solutions’ Head of Strategy & Business Development.