How the chemical industry wants to become climate neutral by 2050

Chemical recycling

Mixed plastic waste, which makes up the lion’s share, is not that easy to separate. Rothermel: “We are developing new methods on a broad front to break them down into their original components.” The plastic residues are affected by heat, catalysts or solvents. The processes split the polymer chains into shorter units up to monomers.

The hydrocarbons obtained in this way are fed back into the material cycle and thus replace primary resources. Rothermel: “This is no longer science fiction, we are already out of the laboratory scale. It will have a great future. ”Critics complain that the process can create completely new products from the materials – that’s not a real cycle.

Recycling from biomass

Here, too, the carbon that is in the product is circulated. Combustion, for example, releases carbon that is released into the environment as CO2. Plants “collect” the greenhouse gas and produce oxygen (photosynthesis). The circle closes as soon as companies use biomass such as sugar, oils or other renewable raw materials as basic chemicals for new products. The proportion of bioplastics is already 13 to 15 percent.

Recycling from carbon dioxide

But carbon dioxide can also be taken directly from the air and used as a raw material. “It is chemically and technically possible to produce basic chemicals from carbon dioxide and hydrogen,” explains Rothermel. There have been attempts to do this in the past (Fischer-Tropsch synthesis). The process is still uneconomical, but should it work on a large scale, it would be “the largest cycle of taking CO2 out of the air while it still comes out of the factory chimneys in concentrated form”. In mathematical terms, some of the emissions that arise from decomposition or combustion could be compensated for.

With a functioning circular economy, the chemical industry can achieve its major goal: producing greenhouse gas-neutral by 2050. “We still have a long way to go, but I am optimistic,” affirmed Rothermel. However, everyone would have to go along with it: “We need good framework conditions from politics and economic processes that can withstand global competition. Society too must cooperate, return the products and be ready to pay for such goods fairly. Otherwise it won’t work. “

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source https://pledgetimes.com/how-the-chemical-industry-wants-to-become-climate-neutral-by-2050/