Ohio company to open plastics, rubber recycling plant
By Frank Esposito | PLASTICS NEWS STAFF
Posted November 12, 2009
plasticsnews.com
AKRON, OHIO (Updated Nov. 13, 1:30 p.m. ET) -- Recycling technology firm Polyflow LLC has attracted new investors and now is confident it will break ground on its first commercial-scale plant in 2010.
Akron, Ohio-based Polyflow also announced Nov. 11 that it is working with two other northeast Ohio firms — Chemstress Consultant Co. of Akron and Niagara Systems of Perry — to design and build the new plant. Polyflow has narrowed down its site search to two locations in the Cleveland-Akron metro area and will make its final decision by year’s end, Polyflow Chairman Joe Hensel said by phone Nov. 13.
“This the right time for this idea,” he said. “It’s an opportunity to reduce our dependence on crude oil.”
Hensel declined to identify Polyflow’s new investors, but said that he is much more confident about the new plant than he was earlier in the year. The ongoing recession had reduced the level of investment in the firm this year, after it had drawn $1 million from angel investors in 2008.
Hensel also declined to specify the two remaining sites being considered for the plant, citing ongoing negotiations with state officials for tax credits. The plant would be able to process up to 5,000 pounds of plastics and rubber waster per hour through a continuous-feed commercial processor.
Polyflow uses pyrolysis technology developed in the late 1970s by Charles Grispin, an Akron-area inventor who now serves as the firm’s chief information officer. In the process, scrap is placed into a tank and cooked at nearly 1,000° F until vaporized. The vapor is then condensed; the resulting liquid contains aromatic chemicals including styrene and benzene.
Only 6 percent of the waste items used by Polyflow currently are recycled, according to Hensel. The remaining 94 percent otherwise would end up in landfills. Since scrap used in the Polyflow process is melted down, contamination is not a factor. Items processed at the firm’s pilot plant in Akron include carpet, tires, children’s toys, leftover plastic compounds and polystyrene foam. Chemicals refined from the slurry liquid can be reused by petrochemical firms or used in paints, coatings, solvents or other products.
In addition to the pilot plant, Polyflow has plastic waste supply agreements in place with the city of Stow, Ohio, and with Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio.
The pyrolysis concept has been around for years but never has been commercialized fully. That may be changing. In addition to the Polyflow project, Canadian Investment firm 310 Holdings Inc. is building a similar unit in Niagara Falls, Ontario, and technology firm Envion Inc. in September opened a pyrolysis pilot plant in Derwood, Md. — just outside of Washington, D.C.
Officials with Washington-based Envion said they expect to have between 75 and 100 of the units in operation worldwide by this time next year.
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