SuperPolyWash - Supercritical CO2 washing and decontamination of post-consumer plastic film waste

The Covid-19 pandemic has boosted the focus on the need for urgent action on single use plastics, The SuperPolyWash project will look at the commercial potential of using Super Critical Carbon Dioxide (ScCO2) in the purification of contaminated plastic films, instead of water, to recycle them back into high value products. The process will target the simultaneous removal of oils, inks and contamination from post-consumer polyolefinic films, with the focus being on Polypropylene (PP) and Linear Low Density Polyethylene (LLDPE) films.Existing recycling processes use water and surfactants that need additional energy for drying and create contaminated water that requires additional bio-chemical treatment. ScCO2 is a non-toxic, non-flammable, non-corrosive solvent and can be selective about the contaminants it removes. Using ScCO2 as a decontamination solvent is already well established among other industries. **Nextek Ltd** is the lead organisation which specialises in the recycling of post consumer plastics and the developer of a number of breakthrough recycling technologies including food grade recycled High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) , Food grade recycled PP, Near Infra red Detectable black Plastics and Fluorescent markers for polymer sorting. Nextek Ltd also designs large scale plastics recycling plants such as the £65m plant for Viridor at Avonmouth and is well connected to international recycling machinery manufacturers. **Sub-Contractors** **University of Nottingham.** The majority of the initial feasibility and development research will be in The School of Chemistry, under the supervision of Professor Steve Howdle. The UoN team is skilled in sustainability, polymer chemistry, the use of supercritical fluids, analytical chemistry and have experience in the commercialisation of academic research. **The BioComposite Center Bangor University**, The Centre Managed by Dr Robert Elias has facilities that include lab scale analytical equipments for chemical analysis, and a range of pilot scale processing facilities and experience in prototyping materials and de-risking market introduction of new innovations. The Centre set up the supercritical CO2 Research Lab (now JV company Suprex Ltd). **Theme:** Enhancing the benefits and value of our natural resources - Zero Avoidable Waste economy by 2050 The UK Plastics Pact target of 70% recycled content by 2025 would require an additional 228kt of waste films diverted from landfill and energy plants. This would save a comparable amount of waste and also saves 228kt of CO2 savings per year based on a saving of 1 tonne of carbon per tonne of polyethylene recycled along with water and (treatment) savings of 684ktpa.