SYNOVA is a leading innovator in advanced chemical recycling technologies. The company’s process, developed together with Technip Energies, introduces an efficient and sustainable method to convert mixed waste plastics and biogenic residues into olefins and aromatics. It is different from pyrolysis and different from gasification and could be named “The third way”.

Source: SYNOVA

SYNOVA’s patented thermochemical recycling technology closes the gap in the plastic supply chain, by taking dirty and mixed plastic waste and breaking it down to its basic building blocks, such as olefin monomers and co-products, to produce circular plastics.

The process has a low carbon footprint and defossilizes the production of virgin polymers, in addition to reducing the need for intensive plastic waste sorting.

I joined SYNOVA because I believe in the technology, the team, and the collaboration with our partners. Our solutions enable a truly circular economy and will contribute significantly to reduce fossil-based extraction. It provides a future-proof solution to the industry.

Chemical recycling by thermal treatment generally is considered either pyrolysis or gasification. In pyrolysis, waste plastics are being broken down to fragments that are big enough to be a liquid. Temperatures are 400-500°C. The liquid can be upgraded to replace naphtha in a steam cracker.

In gasification, temperatures exceed 1100°C and any feedstock will be broken down in hydrogen and carbon-monoxide (and water and carbon-dioxide). The syngas can be processed to produce methanol for subsequent methanol to olefins conversion, or to hydrocarbons to replace naphtha.

There is a third way to recycle plastics and produce chemicals!

SYNOVA has developed a third way: cracking. A solid waste cracker operates at temperatures between a pyrolysis reactor and a gasifier and produces a product gas that is rich in C2 to C7 molecules, very similar to a naphtha steam cracker furnace.

SYNOVA’s third way enables a significantly shorter recycling loop than pyrolysis and gasification to produce the targeted circular monomers. It avoids additional reaction steps and the associated plastic to plastic yield losses.

The third way process by SYNOVA provides the most direct way to valuable chemical products from mixed waste feedstocks. It only has one conversion step, just as a conventional steam cracker operating on non-renewable feedstocks.

SYNOVA's process can handle feedstock that contain water, and inert and biogenic materials. This means less sorting and cleaning, higher feedstock availability, less plastic losses, and cheaper feedstock.