RT’s innovation strategy is to begin with the cleaner MPW that the RT7000 is capable of processing, and move down the chain of MPW with higher levels of contamination. This allows us to commercialise the technology whilst developing an advanced version of the RT7000. The complexity of the process is proportional to the level of contamination in the plastic waste processed. Currently, the RT7000 has been designed to process MPW that has low levels of contamination. As the technology further develops, our capability to process a higher level of contamination will increase opening up markets 2-3 times bigger than the current market. In addition to this, it will increase the profitability for the technology as more contaminated the plastic is, the higher is its disposal costs to waste producers.
The success of this project underpins RT’s vision - to establish a commercially attractive process that will ultimately eliminate landfilling and the leakage of plastics into the oceans. By increasing the scope of the RT7000, and discovering the science behind the clean-up of hydrocarbon product, this will open new market opportunities since the process will not be limited to such a clean specification of MPW feedstock. It will enable RT to be proactive in their future business strategy and lead the market. The process will be able to deal with waste materials from packaging in their entirety, and eventually expand to opportunities in other sectors such as black non-packaging and black bag plastic waste, where there are higher levels of contamination.
In relation to this original objective, the project successfully delivered a clear route for a more integrated solution in the machine RT-7000 to remove contaminants in the product as we feed more and more complex plastic waste. The work started with a clear definition on the contaminants and their effect on the product quality in chemical recycling and RT’s process. This allowed the problem to be defined and lined up potential solutions with the business objective: keep the quality product unchanged as the complexity of the plastic waste to be processed increases. The proposal for a cleaning system considered the filtration system and the generation of a technological map involving different alternatives alongside the RT process. The potential scenarios and proposals for experimentation and development have been reported. The main focus was removal of the halides that are anticipated to be found in the final product.
A wider vision considering additional modules for cleaning the product, the optimisation of the fluidised bed reactor performance, chemical treatments after reactor and, the possible combination of them was proposed. This will provide a higher flexibility and robustness in the machine if the complexity of the plastic waste is increased. The ideas were discussed and submitted to a decision-making process with technical and commercial personnel in the company. Once they were approved, a set of experimental plans and more detailed tasks were executed. The major interest was the development of the concept and to update the technological road map on these scenarios for the integrated cleaning system. Some experimentation was carried out at lab and pilot scale and the rest were described for its continuity after the project was completed.
