Schneider Electric partners with GR3N to tackle plastic recycling challenges in chemical sector

Schneider Electric has partnered with PET chemical recycler GR3N to create the first open automation system for the advanced plastic recycling industry.

With 50% of global plastic waste ending up in landfills and only 9% recycled, GR3N developed MADE, the Microwave Assisted DEpolymerization solution. This new process breaks down PET into its chemical building blocks that can be recombined to create new PET pellets with virgin-like quality for packaging and textiles, effectively closing the loop for hard to recycle plastic. The technology is based on alkaline hydrolysis, and it can manage a higher amount of impurities compared to the existing ones.

Through software-defined automation and hardware independence, we have been able to effectively de-risk our operations and push the boundaries of our technology," said Fabio Silvestri, Head of Marketing and Business Development at GR3N.

We've been able to reconfigure our systems quickly when we see opportunities to improve efficiency, while avoiding supply chain issues due the hardware agnostic nature of the system. This is what is needed to make advanced plastic recycling at reality at scale."

Due to EcoStruxure Automation Expert's modular, agnostic nature, GR3N was able to choose the optimal technology for the demonstration plant and easily scale to new sites.

Global demand for plastics is expected to triple by 2060, with the amount of plastics in the ocean predicted to outweigh fish. Meeting demand and curbing pollution, while achieving net zero by 2050, requires a consumption model revolution.

The partnership between GR3N and Schneider Electric will enable the chemical recycler to scale operations to new sites quickly and cost-effectively. The solution is expected to reach industrial scale by 2027 with the construction of a 35-40kta plant which will include the pre-treatment, depolymerization and repolymerization.

Every year, people produce around 460 million tons of plastic, approximately 70% of which are sent to landfills or mismanaged," said Christophe de Maistre, President Energy & Chemicals, Industrial Automation at Schneider Electric.

If we want to overcome the scale of plastic waste, there are certain non-negotiables. We must see integration across the whole product cycle, modularization to optimize and standardize engineering processes, as well as software defined automation solutions that delivers scalability, break siloes and acts as a gateway to advanced analytics. This project with GR3N demonstrates all of these principles, improving flexibility, scalability and the efficiency of their solution and enabling them to grow to an industrial scale.

About Schneider Electric

Schneider's purpose is to create Impact by empowering all to make the most of our energy and resources, bridging progress and sustainability for all. At Schneider, we call this Life Is On. Our mission is to be the trusted partner in Sustainability and Efficiency. We are a global industrial technology leader bringing world-leading expertise in electrification, automation and digitization to smart industries, resilient infrastructure, future-proof data centers, intelligent buildings, and intuitive homes.

Anchored by our deep domain expertise, we provide integrated end-to-end lifecycle AI enabled Industrial IoT solutions with connected products, automation, software and services, delivering digital twins to enable profitable growth for our customers. We are a people company with an ecosystem of 150,000 colleagues and more than a million partners operating in over 100 countries to ensure proximity to our customers and stakeholders.

We embrace diversity and inclusion in everything we do, guided by our meaningful purpose of a sustainable future for all.

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This release was published on openPR.