Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (MCC) and ENEOS have launched a facility that utilizes Mura Technology’s water-based recycling process to transform end-of-life plastic into oil, enabling the production of new chemicals and plastic products.

Source: The Chemical Engineer

Located at MCC’s Ibaraki Plant in Kamisu, Japan, this initiative has been in progress since 2021 as part of the joint plastic-to-oil project between MCC and ENEOS, with a target to process 20,000 tons per year of plastic.

The recycled oil generated by MCC and ENEOS will be utilized in their existing refinery and naphtha cracker to manufacture a variety of products, including food and pharmaceutical packaging, as well as a range of organic and inorganic chemicals.

Mura's Technology

Mura’s Hydrothermal Plastic Recycling Technology (Hydro-PRT) employs “supercritical” water along with several processing steps to convert post-consumer plastic into hydrocarbons.

Initially, waste plastics are shredded and melted, then combined with supercritical water — water subjected to high pressure and temperature — and further heated. This mixture is introduced into a reactor, where it breaks down into liquid hydrocarbons and gas, which is subsequently fractionated into different oil grades.

Mura asserts that its technology can produce feedstocks for a variety of plastic products, including low and high-density polyethylene (LDPE and HDPE) and PET, which are commonly used for manufacturing milk cartons, water bottles, and packaging films.

MCC and ENEOS are committed to “promoting initiatives that contribute to the energy and materials transition,” which includes investments in plastic recycling projects. Their previous collaboration with Neste resulted in the development of PET resin made entirely from renewable and recycled raw materials, utilizing Neste RE feedstock.