Extrusion International 6-2023

20 Extrusion International 6/2023 INDUSTRY NEWS Collaboration to Give Waste a Second Life BASF and Teamplas Group, a leading manufacturer of recycled pellets in Southeast Asia, have collaborated to transform post-consumer waste into new high-quality office equipment and car interior parts with the help of BASF’s IrgaCycle ® . With a wide network of local waste collectors of household products, E&E equipment, and end-of-life vehicles, Teamplas produces recycled pellets for use mainly in electrical appliances. To address their custom- ers’ growing demand for high-quality recycled resins, Teamplas decided to use IrgaCycle to compatibilize mix- tures of polyolefin plastics and mitigate the thermal and mechanical stress of the recycling process. “Our priority is to help Teamplas control the varia- tion in the quality of recyclates and improve the perfor- mance of their final products,” said Hazel Sprafke, Vice President, Global Business Management, Plastic Addi- tives, Asia Pacific. “As IrgaCycle is a unique combina - tion of additives, it is safe and easy to dose as needed to minimize the impact of impurities in recyclates.” In addition, with the use of IrgaCycle, Teamplas can improve the surfaces of parts produced using their re- cyclates. Chair armrests, printer exteriors, and car stereo frames can all be produced with higher gloss and great- er long-term thermal stability. IrgaCycle can even enable these finished products to be made with 100% recycled pellets. The use of plas- tics in high-value applications drives a growing circular economy and helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions for a positive impact on climate change. “The joint efforts between BASF and Teamplas will continue as we aim to use IrgaCycle for applications in the packaging industry,” said Pongsakorn Atichatsri- sakul, Executive Director of Teamplas Group. “Our part- nership with BASF will not only help us tackle recycling quality but contribute to the goals laid out in the Thai government’s National Roadmap on Plastic Waste Man- agement (2018-2030).” As part of BASF’s VALERAS portfolio, IrgaCycle con- sists of a series of plastic additive formulations, which enable recycled plastics to be used for the production of high-value parts in combination with virgin materials. BASF plastic additives www.plasticadditives.basf.com www.performancechemicals.basf.com Investment Orion is investing €12.8 million – including €6.4 mil- lion in funding from the German government and Eu- ropean Union – to further develop and demonstrate a climate-neutral process for producing carbon black from alternative carbon sources. The technology is designed to improve Orion’s yield and throughput in the production of carbon black us- ing circular feedstocks and thus potentially reduce the carbon footprint of the process by a significant amount. This could accelerate the shift to a circular economy and feed the growing demand for sustainable materials in the tire industry. Half of the €12.8 million Orion plans to invest in this initiative, called the "Clean Carbon Black Research and Development Project,” will be provided by the decar- bonization program of Germany’s Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action, supported by the EU’s NextGenerationEU fund. “We are grateful for the funding from the EU and the German government. It shows a great commitment to innovation and creating a circular economy,” Orion CEO Corning Painter said. “For years, Orion has been a leading innovator in making carbon black from circular feedstocks,” Painter added. “The Clean Carbon Black Research and Develop- ment Project’s aimwill be to develop ways to reduce the carbon footprint and improve the yield and through- put, potentially lowering the cost of the material. Tech- nological breakthroughs in this increasingly important field could have significant ramifications for energy in - tegration and the molecular recycling of tires.” A research facility is being built for the project at Ori- on’s main innovation center at its plant in Cologne. Orion S.A. orioncarbons.com