ReNew ELP selects Emerson as its digital automation partner for its new plastics recycling plant in Teesside, North East England.
ReNew ELP, a UK-based advanced recycling company, selects Emerson as its digital automation partner for its new plastics recycling plant in Teesside, North East England. Emerson says its automation technology and software will help achieve safe, efficient operation of an innovative hydrothermal process to convert end-of-life plastics back into their original feedstock to produce new plastic products, reducing waste and pollution.
Currently, many post-consumer plastics, including flexible and multi-layer plastic packaging items, such as films, pots, tubs and trays, are considered “unrecyclable” via traditional mechanical recycling methods and are instead sent to landfill or incinerated. After a short first-use cycle, 95% of plastic packaging material value, or $80–120 billion annually, is lost to the economy, according to the World Economic Forum.
“By converting end-of-life plastics into fossil-replacement feedstocks, ReNew ELP has the potential to eliminate unnecessary single-use plastic and make the raw ingredients for a circular plastics economy, creating value instead of waste,” says Richard Daley, managing director, ReNew ELP. “Pivotal to achieving these goals is the construction of this first commercial-scale plant using a unique hydrothermal platform and in Emerson, we have found a valuable, long-term partner to create an advanced automation model for further plants planned across Europe.”
The ReNew ELP plant will utilize an advanced recycling process called HydroPRS (Hydrothermal Plastic Recycling System) that uses supercritical steam (high pressure and temperature) to convert waste plastics into the valuable chemicals and oils from which they were originally made. The products can then be used to manufacture new plastics and other materials. As the main automation contractor, Emerson reportedly will be responsible for developing a complete automation and control solution to ensure safe, efficient operation of the demanding production process with minimum operator intervention.
For more information, visit: www.emerson.com
