Toyo to build renewable ethylene pilot plant for Sumitomo Chemical


Type of post: NEWS.

Toyo Engineering Corporation (Toyo) has been awarded a contract for the project to construct a pilot plant to produce ethylene from waste-derived ethanol, planned by Sumitomo Chemical Company at its Chiba Works.

Figure 1. Sumitomo Chemical and Sekisui Chemical has formed a strategic alliance to deploy technology for manufacturing polyolefins using waste as feedstock (extracted from a Sumitomo press release)

Toyo has worked with Sumitomo Chemical since the basic design of the plant and currently carries out the detail engineering, procurement, and construction under a lump-sum contract, aiming to start demonstration operation of the plant for a short period.

In February 2020, Sumitomo Chemical and Sekisui Chemical agreed to form a strategic alliance to deploy technology for manufacturing polyolefins using waste as feedstock. This alliance combines Sekisui Chemical’s production technology for transforming waste into ethanol with Sumitomo Chemical’s technological know-how in manufacturing polyolefin, thereby promoting a circular economy initiative to chemically recycle waste into polyolefin. Sekisui Chemical, in cooperation with LanzaTech, has succeeded in developing a technology that enables gasification of waste into carbon monoxide and hydrogen without the need for waste separation, and converts these gases into ethanol using a microbial catalyst. Pilot production will begin in 2022 and the full-scale market launch is expected in 2025.

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