The goal of BioBTX, accompanied by subsidy consultancy Asqa Subsidies, is to commercialise technology that allows sustainable platform chemicals to be produced cost-effectively from plastic or biomass waste streams. The focus is on platform chemicals benzene, toluene and xylenes (BTX), due to the chemical catalytic conversion of mixed plastic waste streams. The production of these platform chemicals from sustainable raw materials and supply to the chemical industry contributes to the national and international climate targets for CO2 reduction, reduction of plastic waste and circularity (closing of cycles).Plastic substances are an essential part of our society through its unique properties such as strength, weight, conductivity and flexibility. Plastics are used in many applications and have proven their worth. The main drawback of plastics is the way they are currently processed in our society at the end of their use. They often end up as waste in treatment plants, but also in nature. Many initiatives are being launched to improve the collection, use and value of plastic waste through mechanical or chemical recycling. BioBTX wants to make a substantial contribution to the transition from a disposable and substitute economy, resulting in depletion of raw materials and non-degradable waste and CO2 emissions, towards a circular economy where waste no longer exists but substances become raw materials for other substances. BioBTX has developed a technology as a possible solution to use mixed plastics, which are normally insufficiently recycled, as a raw material for existing and new products. The formed building blocks can then be used in different applications for the chemical industry. The project contributes to the specific objectives the innovation trajectory aims at by developing a new carbon-efficient technology that contributes to a significant CO2 reduction of 40 % to 60 % compared to current alternatives on a commercial scale. This project will enable the Dutch chemical industry to close down cycles of raw materials and upgrade difficult recyclable waste streams. As a result, less fossil raw materials and energy (reduction of CO2 emissions) are needed for the production of plastics. The “used waste plastics” are treated as a raw material, which makes it possible to reduce plastic waste in a valuable way at waste processors and the environment, precisely through the reuse and neglect of materials. The challenge is to tap alternative sources than fossil sources in the production of aromatics to meet the essential demand for sustainable aromatics. At the same time, the aim is to enable a higher degree of sustainability in the production of plastics by producing the building blocks of plastics from renewable raw materials and residual streams. Plastic waste is now mainly incinerated or end up in the sea. By converting waste plastic into valuable basic chemicals that can be used as building blocks for sustainable products, this project will have a large environmental and raw material impact. In addition, the results of this project will have a major impact on the circular economy of the Netherlands and the world.
