Trio set to scale polyester-to-polyester recycling

KITAKYUSHU - French technology firm Axens has teamed up with IFPEN (IFP Energies nouvelles) and JEPLAN (Japan Environmental Planning) to validate a textile-to-textile recycling route for polyester at semi-industrial scale.

In a trial at the partners’ 1,000 tonne-per-year Rewind PET demonstration unit at JEPLAN’s Kitakyushu Hibikinada Pilot (KHP) plant in Kitakyushu, Japan, polyester-rich textiles collected, sorted and prepared in France were depolymerised to produce several tens of tonnes of bis(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (BHET), the base monomer for polyethylene terephthalate (PET).