The German company Pruvia plans to begin construction of one of Europe’s largest thermochemical recycling plants for plastic waste in summer. The initial investment at the Gendorf chemical park in southeastern Germany will be a "mid-double-digit million euro sum", Pruvia said at a joint press conference with the chemical park operator Infraserv Gendorf on 13 February. Commissioning of the facility is planned for the fourth quarter of 2026 and it is expected to have around 30 employees once it is up and running.
Pruvia says the process it developed and patented "converts non-recyclable mixed plastic waste into circular, non-fossil naphtha using a continuous pyrolysis process". The Gendorf facility will be able to process 35,000 tonnes of plastic waste per year and there are plans to double its capacity to 70,000 tonnes a year by 2028.
The naphtha oil produced by Pruvia could be used to meet the recycled content targets set out in the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), the company said. Demand for the material was therefore high: "The plant is not even built yet and the first five years of production output is already sold," Martin Nitz, co-founder and CEO of Pruvia, told EUWID. Customers had already secured options for the following five years, which showed how receptive the market was for good-quality pyrolysis oil, he said.
The plant’s feedstock is to consist of pre-sorted plastic waste fractions from which contaminants, such as chlorinated plastics, have been removed, according to Mr Nitz. The material processed at the pyrolysis plant would otherwise be destined for incineration or landfilling....
