A range of novel technologies is being developed to recycle complex plastic waste streams. This screening LCA estimates the carbon footprint of SPEX recycling and compares it to fossil production processes and current waste treatments. SPEX recycling is estimated to offer substantial carbon footprint reductions compared to reference processes for all waste streams studied.
SPEX Technology is a subsidiary company of OBBOTEC, developing a recycling technology called Selective Plastic EXtraction, or SPEX in short. The goal of this screening life cycle assessment (LCA) is to estimate the carbon footprint of recycling three different waste streams with the SPEX process and compare the results to reference plastic production/waste treatment processes.
The screening LCA compares the carbon footprint of SPEX recycling to fossil production processes (product perspective) and current waste treatments (waste perspective). The ex-ante assessment is primarily based on the mass- and energy balances from the conceptual design study for a 20 kt/yr SPEX plant.
Three distinct waste streams are studied as feedstock for SPEX:
The analysis shows that SPEX recycling offers a substantially lower (1.1 to 1.9 t CO2-eq./t) estimated carbon footprint than fossil production of polyolefins (product perspective analyses, current energy mix). This reduction is increased further to 1.5 to 2.2 t CO2-eq./t when assuming renewable energy supply for SPEX.