Versalis: construction site for plastics chemical recycling plant opens in Mantua

San Donato Milanese (MI), 31 October 2023 – Versalis, Eni’s chemical company, has begun construction of a demo plant in Mantua to develop Hoop®, its proprietary technology for chemical recycling of mixed plastic waste. Hoop® stems from a joint project with Italian engineering company S.R.S. (Research and Development Services). The venture is aimed at developing an innovative technology that complements mechanical recycling by transforming mixed plastic waste into raw materials to produce new virgin polymers.

The project was made possible by the collaboration – initiated in 2020 – with Corepla (National Consortium for the Collection, Recycling and Recovery of Plastic Packaging) to enhance the value of post-consumer plastics from national recycling collection.

The technology, named Hoop® to evoke circularity, has been integrated with the plastics pyrolysis product purification technologies of Technip Energies (T.EN), a leading engineering and technology company for the energy transition, developing a technology platform for advanced chemical recycling.

The Hoop® technology demo plant will have capacity to handle 6,000 tonnes of secondary raw material, and is scheduled to be up and running by the end of 2024.

Hoop® is the only Italian technology to have won an award from the 2023 ‘EU Innovation Fund’, allocated by the European Commission with a total of €3.6 billion and focused on innovative low-carbon technologies - with 239 projects submitted and 41 total winners.

«The Hoop® project is an important step forward in Versalis’ strategy to develop chemical recycling technology, complementary to mechanical recycling, to ensure full circularity for all plastics. The project will boost the recycling of plastic waste, thereby contributing to the recycling targets at national level in order to achieve the ones set by the European Commission» commented Versalis CEO Adriano Alfani.