iCAREPLAST

iCAREPLAST aims to demonstrate the whole technology for plastic waste valorisation in a pilot plant able to process >100 kg/h of plastic. Advanced upstream waste sorting, pre-treatment and pyrolysis is strongly backed by previous demonstration activities and know-how of the consortium, with profound knowledge of waste management and recycling market.

iCAREPLAST solution will enforce circular economy by substantially increasing the amount of recycled plastics to produce commodity products that can be used for virgin-quality polymers production or as raw materials for other processes in petrochemicals, fine chemicals, automotive and detergent/surfactants industries. As a result of its initial exploitation we will treat 250,000t of plastic waste which otherwise would have become landfill, converting it into 1,500t of alkylaromatics and 1,000t of aromatics. Additionally, liquid and gaseous streams of rich-hydrocarbons (including CO2), and solid subproducts (char) will be also recovered and valorised to maximise material and energy balance of the overall process, thus minimising environmental footprint and ensuring economic sustainability.

Contact

Instituto de Tecnología Química
(UPV-CSIC)

Campus UPV - Building 6C
Av. los Naranjos s/n
E-46022 Valencia
Spain

www.icareplast.eu

    The project is coordinated by Instituto de Tecnología Química (ITQ), which is a joint research centre created in 1990 by the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) and the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC). ITQ is an international reference centre in the area of catalysis and materials science. Due to its excellent fundamental and oriented research level and to its multidisciplinary character, the ITQ has the possibility to develop research in different disciplines having an extraordinary flexibility and capability to adapt itself to new research challenges.

    Goals

    iCAREPLAST addresses the cost and energy-efficient recycling of a large fraction of today’s non-recyclable plastics and composites from urban waste. Heterogeneous plastic mixtures will be converted into valuable chemicals (alkylaromatic) via chemical routes. The project aims to demonstrate the whole technology for plastic waste valorisation in a pilot plant able to process >100 kg/h of plastic.

    iCAREPLAST combines pyrolysis, catalytic upgrading and conversions, membrane separation technologies and oxy-fuel combustion systems to obtain high added-value chemical in an energy efficient and environmentally friendly context. To ensure sustainability of the process, AI-based advanced control of the  pilot plant will be applied that aim at harmonising economic and environmental targets, making use of meaningful indicators defined taking into account LCA (life cycle assessment) and LCC (life cycle cost) analyses.

    Contact

    Prof. José Manuel Serra Alfaro

    Instituto de Tecnología Química, ITQ
    Research Professor

    +34 963879448
    jmserra@itq.upv.es

    Prof. José M. Serra is a Research Professor at the Instituto de Tecnología Química, ITQ. He leads the Energy Conversion and Storage group at ITQ. His activities focused on heterogeneous catalysis, catalytic membrane reactors, process intensification, membrane technology, electrochemical conversion and energy storage. He worked at the Institute for Materials and Processes in Energy Systems (Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany), working on the development of nano-structured SOFC electrodes and new ionic membranes. He is co-author of 165 articles, 14 book chapters (h-index June 2020: 42) and 25 patent applications in the field of membranes, catalysis and energy systems (14 of them licensed to industry). Prof. Serra is the CSIC representative for European Energy Research Alliance (EERA): Basic Science for Energy Joint Programme (AMPEA), Deputy Coordinator of the subprogram Materials Science in AMPEA. For his contribution to the field, he has received the ExxonMobil Chemical European Science and Engineering Award 2005, the Spanish Catalysis Society PhD Award 2004, the Christian Friedrich Schönbein Medal 2009, European Ceramic Society Young Scientist Award 2015, Medal of the Royal Spanish Engineering Academy 2016 and Air Liquide Scientific Prize 2018. He is the founder of KERIONICS, the Spin-off which develops ceramic membrane systems for the generation of O2.

    Dr Laura Almar Liante

    Instituto de Tecnología Química, ITQ
    Post-Doctoral Scientist

    +34 963877809
    lauallia@itq.upv.es

    Dr Laura Almar is a Post-Doctoral Scientist at the Instituto de Tecnología Química, ITQ. Her research interests and expertise include material science, electrochemistry and 3D tomography techniques of solid-state ionic devices, particularly fuel cells/electrolyzers, gas separation membranes and catalytic membrane reactors. She received her PhD by the Physics Faculty at the Universitat de Barcelona (UB) in 2014 carried out at the Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC). She performed research stays at Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany and Georgia Tech, US. From 2015 to 2019, Dr Laura Almar joined the Department of Advanced Materials for Electrical and Electronic Engineering (IAM-WET) at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany. She has co-authored 20 peer-reviewed contributions in international journals and participated in 30 international conferences in the field. At the present, she combines Research with Project Management, being part of the coordination and dissemination team of the H2020 projects iCAREPLAST and eCOCO2.