Coperion will deliver a ZSK Mc18 twin screw extruder and corresponding peripherals for a Plastics2chemicals (P2C) plant that Belgian waste management company Indaver is building to chemically recycle plastic waste. The P2C plant is currently under construction in Antwerp, Belgium and is expected to annually transform 30,000 tons of so-called end-of-life plastics into high-quality basic chemicals.

Along with the ZSK extruder, the order includes Coperion K-Tron gravimetric feeders, a vacuum unit, a closing valve, and the melt line to the reactor.

Where mechanical plastics recycling reaches its limits, Indaver picks up with its innovative Plastics2chemicals depolymerization process. The company reclaims materials from mixed polyolefin and polystyrene streams, closing the loop for these plastics with no loss in quality.

In the P2C recycling process, plastics are broken down into shorter carbon chains or monomers. Base products such as naphtha (raw benzine) and wax result from polyolefins (PE and PP). Polystyrenes are split into monomers that can be reused as raw material.

The Coperion ZSK Mc18 twin screw extruder assumes a central function in Indaver’s innovative P2C process. Before plastic waste can be fed into the reactor, it must pass through the ZSK extruder’s process section at throughputs of up to 3.7 tons per hour. Using intensive shearing and dispersion, the ZSK extruder’s twin screws introduce a large amount of mechanical energy into the material stream in a very short period of time. In just 30 seconds, the agglomerated post-consumer waste is transformed into a homogeneous, up to 350°C (660°F) hot melt in an energy-efficient process.

A Coperion K-Tron gravimetric feeder continuously feeds agglomerated plastic waste into the twin screw extruder. The melt exits the ZSK extruder just as uniformly, ensuring constant loading of the likewise continuously operating P2C plant’s reactor.

An additional Coperion K-Tron gravimetric feeder regulates the addition of additives into the ZSK extruder’s process section, where they are homogeneously mixed in. At the same time, the remaining moisture in the agglomerated plastic is reduced via the ZSK extruder’s devolatilization.




ZSK twin screw extruders from Coperion ensure especially energy-efficient, continuous reactor loading in chemical plastics recycling.

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