After more than ten years of research and fine-tuning of its pilot plant in Istanbul, Turkish SynPet Technologies has chosen the Port of Antwerp to build its first large-scale plastic recycling plant. The project will represent a 300-million-euro investment.
If all goes according to plan, the plant will be operational in 2028 and will process 250,000 tons of plastic waste annually into an alternative to naphtha. Naphtha is derived from crude oil refining and serves as a basic feedstock for the petrochemical industry.
It is ‘cracked’ in petrochemical plants into ethylene and propylene, among other products, which are then used further down the chain to make plastics.
‘Beginning of new life’
“Synpet will recycle all kinds of mixed and contaminated plastics that generally end up in incinerators or landfills into a fully-fledged raw material that can be used immediately for the production of new plastics — without additional purification or upgrading,” explains Cem Özsüer, the founder and CEO of Synpet. “Waste should not be the end of a product’s life cycle, but the beginning of a new life.”
SynPet’s patented Thermal Conversion Process (TCP®) can recycle all carbon-containing waste streams, including plastics that cannot be processed using mechanical or existing chemical techniques. The revolutionary process eliminates the need for pyrolysis, the process of melting waste plastics into oil.
100% sustainable
“We make a difference by using water under high pressure and at a high temperature to break down mixed plastic waste directly into a product that can be fed to the crackers without post-treatment,” says Özsüer. “An entirely new approach to chemical recycling,” he adds. The circular process is almost 100 percent sustainable.
The EU will impose stricter rules on the minimum recycled content of plastics starting in 2030, with the Plastics Regulation. This creates a guaranteed market for Synpet. Hence, the decision was made to build the first factory in Antwerp.
Synpet’s arrival is a boost for the Port of Antwerp. The chemical sector is under unprecedented pressure due to a combination of high energy prices and a cheap oversupply from regions like China.
The factory will be built on a site with direct access to water and land, in collaboration with Euroports and the Port of Antwerp-Bruges. The project is supported by, among others, the international Kolmar Group AG, a Swiss petrochemical trading and production company that previously invested in SynPet. The plant will create more than 100 direct and indirect jobs and position Flanders as a pioneer in the circular economy.
