DOW teams with Canadian firm that squeezes oil from waste plastics
by CanadianManufacturing.com Staff
The deal could also include developing these recovery facilities across North America.
VANCOUVER—A Canadian company that recovers energy, chemicals and oil from end-of-life waste plastics currently sent to landfill has attracted the attention of DOW Chemical Co.
Based in Vancouver, Kleen Industries Inc. has signed a three-year agreement with the world’s second-largest chemical company to extract value from oil-based plastic packaging, as well as potentially develop these recovery facilities across North America.
Klean’s thermal conversion technology has been licensed, developed and used commercially in Japan for years, processing mixed plastics such as PET, PVC, polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene while producing 4MWe of electricity.
The company says it can recover about 950 litres of oil (depending on the plastics) from a tonne of mixed plastic waste.
With millions of tonnes of end-of-life plastic currently being landfilled, Klean CEO Jesse Klinkhamer believes there is potential for many such facilities around the globe.
These facilities would convert oil-based waste streams such as end-of-life plastics into high grade liquid fuels, syngas, electricity and nano-scale carbon black fillers that are compatible with existing applications and product formulations.
“Klean’s primary customer base includes energy utilities, waste management companies, manufacturing businesses and government bodies across North America and Europe who see energy recovery as an important part of the hierarchy of integrated resource management,” said Klinkhamer.
“Our collaboration with Dow is a critical step in realizing our goal of “100 per cent recycling and recovery of End-of-Life Packaging.”
