BioBTX B.V. (Groningen, Netherlands) is building its world’s first commercial-scale plant to transform mixed plastic waste into high-quality aromatic chemicals based on its in-house developed ICCP (Integrated Catalytic Cracking Process) technology. Covestro AG (Leverkusen, Germany) has been a shareholder and strategic partner of the Groningen-based company since 2024, with a mid-single-digit million Euro stake.
The plant, which will create 35 new jobs, will be built at Chemical Park Delfzijl on the northern coast of the Netherlands. It will use BioBTX’s proprietary ICCP technology, which converts the type of mixed plastic waste that would otherwise be incinerated or sent to landfill via catalytic pyrolysis into aromatic oil consisting of benzene, toluene and xylenes (BTX). These are the same building blocks the chemical industry uses today in coatings, pharmaceuticals and performance materials. They can also be used for the isocyanate production (MDI/TDI) of Covestro, from which soft foam for mattresses or rigid foam for insulating refrigerators are made.
The current demoplant of the ICCP pyrolysis technology of BioBTX. © BioBTX
“We’ve followed BioBTX’s progress for years and are very happy to now see the point where the technology proves itself at industrial scale,” said Dr. Thorsten Dreier, Chief Technology Officer at Covestro. “This marks a very important step. Moreover, it processes mixed plastic waste instead of a single sorted stream, which is exactly the kind of recycling we need more of at scale to make a circular economy become reality.”
In total, the plant is expected to recycle about 20,000 tons of waste and produce around 10,000 tons of renewable aromatic oil and 8,000 tons of sustainable by-products from it annually. Compared to conventional, fossil-based BTX production, the process is expected to cut greenhouse gas emissions of the resulting chemical building blocks by 70 to 80%.
“Reaching this key milestone in the development of BioBTX marks an important step in our journey towards our mission of making circular chemistry possible. I am very proud of the full BioBTX team and shareholders whose dedication and commitment has made this achievement possible. We are going to build our world’s first fully sustainable aromatic plant. A great accomplishment!” said Ton Vries, Co-founder and CEO of BioBTX.
This milestone concludes a 14-year journey from an idea in 2012 through lab- and pilot-scale to commercial execution. While this first plant focuses on mixed plastic waste, the ICCP technology is feedstock-flexible, with the potential to expand to other sources in the future, such as biomass.