The final investment decision (FID) for a plant in Baytown, Tex. that will convert polyolefin waste into fuels and petrochemical feedstocks is anticipated near the end of 2026. The facility, operated by Abundia Global Impact Group Inc. (AGIG; Houston, Tex., www.abundiaimpact.com), is unique in that it would be the first commercial-scale plant to combine, at the same site, a pyrolysis process to break down polyolefin waste with an upgrading section to process pyrolysis oil into final fuel and chemical products.
“Our objective is to construct a commercially viable facility that does not require subsidies and can pay for the capital that is invested into it,” says Ed Gillespie, co-founder and CEO of Abundia.
To accomplish the conversion, AGIG had previously licensed technology for thermochemical liquefaction of plastic waste from Alterra Energy (Akron, Ohio; www.alterra360.com) that converts the plastic waste into pyrolysis oil. The technology has been producing refinery-grade pyrolysis oil at Alterra’s Akron, Ohio site since 2022.
Source: Abundia Global Impact Group
Then, in April, AGIG entered a licensing agreement with technology provider Topsoe A/S (Lyngby, Denmark; www.topsoe.com) for its HydroFlex system, which is used to upgrade the pyrolysis oil. This is the first agreement of its kind to use HydroFlex specifically in a plastics-recycling application at commercial scale, Topsoe says.
“HydroFlex was selected as it meaningfully de-risks the company’s development path and reinforces the bankability of its overall configuration,” Topsoe adds. While HydroFlex has been used in the past to convert biomass waste into biofuel, the technology pathway is customized for plastic waste, focusing on decontamination of the plastic, along with dewaxing and hydrocracking.
The Abundia Baytown site will eventually process 80,000 tons of polypropylene and polyethylene waste into about 63,000 tons of final products, including 50% sustainable aviation fuel, along with 25% renewable diesel and 25% petrochemical feedstocks, Gillespie says.
“Although our feedstock is primarily polyolefins, we chose the technology partners so that our process can tolerate small amounts of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) contaminants without interfering with final product quality,” Gillespie explains.