LyondellBasell (LYB) has been selected to receive a €40 million grant from the European Union (EU) Innovation Fund.

The grant will support the fully-electrified, industrial-scale advanced recycling demonstration plant the company plans to build at its Wesseling, Germany site. The company’s MoReTec plant is one of the 41 projects selected in the EU Innovation Fund ‘Third Call for Large Scale Projects’. The EU is committing EUR 3.6 billion as part of its efforts to fund innovative clean-tech projects to support decarbonization.

“We are delighted with the EU Innovation Fund support for the development of our MoReTec technology,” said Jim Seward, EVP and Chief Innovation Officer. “Investing in our first industrial-scale advanced recycling demonstration plant will provide us with valuable operating experience and additional technological know-how needed to scale-up and fully commercialize our MoReTec technology.”

The company’s MoReTec technology demonstrates a high level of innovation in the recycling of polyolefin waste to produce pyrolysis oil and pyrolysis gas. Pyrolysis oil is a substitute for fossil-based materials used in polymer production. Typically, pyrolysis gas streams are consumed as a fuel, however, the MoReTec technology enables the pyrolysis gas to be recovered as well, contributing to the production of polymer and displacing fossil-based feedstocks, which reduces CO2 emissions.

The technology incorporates electrification of the core reaction process, making it possible for the unit to operate completely on renewable electricity. Scalable single train design along with low operating temperatures resulting from the use of catalysts and innovative heat transfer design are additional advantages of this differential technology.

These advantages enable the MoReTec technology to achieve high plastic to plastic conversion rates, helping increase the circularity of plastic waste.

The MoReTec demonstration plant in Germany will convert post-consumer plastic waste into feedstock for the production of new plastic materials to be offered under the company’s CirculenRevive brand.

The Innovation Fund is one of the world's largest funding programs for the demonstration and commercialization of innovative low-carbon technologies. It is one of the key tools of the European Green Deal Industrial Plan and is financed by revenues from the auctioning of allowances from the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS).