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Shell has announced it has successfully made high-end chemicals using a liquid feedstock made from plastic waste. The technique, known as pyrolysis, is considered a breakthrough for hard-to-recycle plastics and advances Shell's ambition to use one million tonnes of plastic waste a year in its global chemicals plants by 2025.
"This makes sense for the environment and our business," said Thomas Casparie, Executive Vice President of Shell's global chemicals business. "We want to take waste plastics that are tough to recycle by traditional methods and turn them back into chemicals – creating a circle. These chemicals will meet our customers' growing demands for high quality and sustainable products."
Atlanta-based Nexus Fuels LLC recently supplied its first cargo of pyrolysis liquid to Shell's chemical plant in Norco, Louisiana, USA where it was made into chemicals that are the raw materials for everyday items. Shell is working with multiple companies who collect and transform plastic waste in order to scale this solution to industrial and profitable quantities across its chemicals plants – in Asia, Europe and North America.
Shell is a founding member of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW). This not-for-profit organisation is bringing together top minds from across the plastics value chain (chemical and plastic manufacturers, consumer goods companies, retailers, converters and waste management companies) and partnering with the financial community, governments and civil society. The AEPW has committed $1.5 billion over the next five years to help end plastic waste in the environment.
Shell is also working with its retail, business fuels and lubricants customers to help reduce, reuse and recycle plastic packaging.
About Shell
Shell makes chemicals that support modern life. It may not be obvious, but they are used in thousands of products people use every day - from furniture, medical equipment, clothes and refrigerators, to computers and smart phones. Window frames, pipes, roofing, mattresses, vehicle parts and tyres. Packaging, shampoos and fertilisers. These products contribute to society's ability to live, work and play.
Shell manufactures base chemicals - ethylene, propylene and aromatics – using oil and gas as feedstock. We also make intermediates, such as mono ethylene glycol (MEG), polyols and alpha olefins, and certain performance products, such as polyethylene.
Shell's global chemicals business sells around 18 million metric tons of petrochemicals per year to over 1000 industrial customers.
Shell's world-class integrated refining and chemicals plants are in Asia-Pacific (Singapore), Europe (the Netherlands), and North America (the US Gulf Coast and Canada).
Shell operates three major petrochemical facilities in the USA at Deer Park, Texas; Norco and Geismar in Louisiana; and additional chemicals manufacturing in Canada at Scotford and Sarnia.
We draw strength from being part of an integrated energy company; we benefit from shared infrastructures, access to a variety of feedstocks, and deep manufacturing and processing expertise. This gives Shell a competitive advantage over stand-alone chemicals companies.
References to the expressions "Shell", "Shell's chemicals business" or "Shell's chemical plants around the world" refer to multiple companies that are part of the Shell Group that are engaged in chemical or related businesses. Each of the companies that make up the Shell Group of companies is an independent entity and has its own separate identity.
For more details, visit www.shell.com/chemicals
About Nexus Fuels
Nexus profitably converts waste plastics into feedstocks, fuels, waxes and other marketable materials satisfying the demand for renewable alternatives at market-driven prices.
Nexus is currently operating a commercially-scaled 50-ton/day plant serving an array of clients seeking high-quality products. Clients include companies converting Nexus pyrolysis products back to chemicals and others refining these products into fuels.
Nexus is an end-to-end business – not simply a technology - including software, front-end handling, regulatory approvals, training/safety procedures, engineering, logistics and more led by an experienced team and guided by financially-driven metrics.
Operational and economically proven, Nexus has already sold over 75,000 gallons of pyrolysis products to a rapidly growing group of global customers.
Nexus is headquartered in Atlanta, GA. For more details please go to www.nexusfuels.com