Benzene, toluene, and xylene (BTX) are important building blocks for a variety of widely-used products including pharmaceuticals, clothing, and glues. Regular BTX is typicallyderived from the catalytic reforming of naphtha in a petroleum refinery. Striving towards awaste-free future, some technology companies have been looking at sustainable ways tocreate BTX.
To help buffer the ever-expanding global plastic waste dilemma, Encina has developed aprocess that economically extracts BTX from plastic waste through catalytic pyrolysis. Itenables the “cracking” of hydrocarbons to create pygas which contains the aromatics.
These are then extracted, captured and delivered to Encina’s end customers.
Encina’s initial US facility, will implement this proprietary technology to produce thevaluable renewable chemicals and can take plastic in varying conditions – from post-consumer, mixed plastics to ocean plastics – which eliminates the labour-intensive processof sorting, cleaning, and baling.
Worley is currently working on the engineering package for the US plant which is modularlyscalable to take on more capacity. This allows Encina to increase throughput as morefeedstock becomes available.
The plant is the first of many planned facilities across the world – with future sites inEurope, Asia, Latin America, and Africa.
“Encina is excited to work with Worley through the entire EPC process, and to have themmanage the operations and maintenance for each Encina facility around the world. We have come to entrust Worley as a key partner in our design and implementation to help resolvethe global issue surrounding plastic waste.” said David Schwedel, Executive Director ofEncina Development Group.
“We are delighted to be extending our relationship with Encina through this project whichsupports Worley’s own commitment to sustainability and the circular economy. This awardsolidifies our long-standing relationship with Encina and our aim to be their end-to-endservice provider for this and future projects.” said Stephen Hillier, President of Worley’sIntegrated Solutions – Downstream, MMM and Power.