Descripción del proyecto
Novedosa tecnología de reciclado de residuos plásticos
El cambio climático incrementa la presión sobre las personas y los gobiernos para que encuentren nuevas tecnologías ecológicas que aumenten el reciclado. En la actualidad, alrededor del 70 % de los residuos plásticos de Europa no se reciclan, ya sea por dificultades económicas o técnicas. Esto ha dado lugar a que cantidades ingentes de residuos acaben en vertederos o se incineren, lo que afecta negativamente al medio ambiente. En este contexto, el equipo del proyecto financiado con fondos europeos iCAREPLAST revertirá esta tendencia introduciendo una metodología novedosa para aumentar el reciclado de residuos plásticos y fomentar una economía circular. Esta nueva metodología permitirá reciclar los residuos de plástico no reciclados a través de un proceso que reduce los costes energéticos, al tiempo que permite obtener productos como el carbón vegetal y los flujos de CO2.
Objetivo
Approximately 70% of European plastic waste (18.5 mt/year) is not being recycled due to technical or economic reasons and are thus sent to landfill (27%) or incinerated (42%). This situation affects negatively the environment in terms of pollution and greenhouse gases emissions, as well as social perception regarding waste management, consumer’s products industry and policy makers.
iCAREPLAST addresses the cost and energy-efficient recycling of a large fraction of today’s non-recyclable plastics and composites from urban waste. Heterogeneous plastic mixtures will be converted into valuable chemicals (alkylaromatic) via chemical routes comprising sequential catalytic and separation steps. This multistage process will also yield carbon char and a pure CO2 stream as products, whilst it will present improved economic sustainability, operational flexibility and lower CO2 footprint thanks to (i) the energetic valorisation of gas by-products through innovative oxycombustion units integrated with efficient heat recovery; and (ii) the use of AI predictive control and real time optimisation. iCAREPLAST aims to demonstrate (TRL-7) the whole technology for plastic waste valorisation in a pilot plant able to process >100 kg/h of plastic. Advanced upstream waste sorting, pre-treatment and pyrolysis is strongly backed by previous demonstration activities and knowhow of the consortium, with profound knowledge of waste management and recycling market.
iCAREPLAST solution will enforce circular economy by substantially increasing the amount of recycled plastics to produce commodity products that can be used for virgin-quality polymers production or as raw materials for other processes in petrochemicals, fine chemicals, automotive and detergent/surfactants industries. As a result of its initial exploitation we will treat 250,000t of plastic waste which otherwise would have become landfill, converting it into 1,500t of alkylaromatics and 1,000t of aromatics.
Ámbito científico
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringwaste managementwaste treatment processesrecycling
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringcomposites
- natural scienceschemical sciencespolymer sciences
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesenvironmental sciencespollution
- social scienceseconomics and businesseconomicssustainable economy
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
Convocatoria de propuestas
Consulte otros proyectos de esta convocatoriaConvocatoria de subcontratación
H2020-NMBP-SPIRE-2018
Régimen de financiación
IA - Innovation actionCoordinador
28006 Madrid
España