As partners, the companies will market Alterra's plastic liquefaction technology in Europe.
Neste, the global leader in renewable diesel, renewable jet fuel and a pioneer in drop-in solutions for renewable chemicals, today announced the acquisition of a minority stake in Alterra Energy, an innovative chemical recycling technology company. Neste's equity investment will support Alterra Energy's expansion.
The collaboration between the companies includes the joint development of technology as well as the global licensing of this technology. This will enable the partners to work together to commercialise Alterra's proprietary thermochemical liquefaction technology in Europe.
Alterra's technology enables the liquefaction of myriad plastic waste streams from diverse post-consumer sources, which can be liquefied into a crude oil-compatible material. Such materials can be flexibly processed and refined by companies such as Neste into high-value feedstocks for polymers and chemical production.
The goal of the two companies is to bring Alterra's liquefaction technology to market globally with a strong focus on Europe, the world's leading market for the transition of plastics value chains to the circular economy. The goal of the two companies is to accelerate the uptake of chemical recycling and develop capacity so that hard-to-recycle plastic waste can be refined into high-performance polymers and chemicals. The companies' collaboration supports Alterra Energy's plans to build a state-of-the-art liquefaction technology site in Europe in 2021.
Alterra's existing industrial-scale plastics liquefaction facility in Akron, Ohio, produces merchant volumes that can already be refined and upgraded into high-value plastic and chemical feedstocks. Together with Neste's refining capacity, this enables sustainability-minded brands around the globe to introduce recycled content into their products and offerings.
"The collaboration with Alterra Energy strengthens Nestes' partner ecosystem and it will help accelerate the transition to a circular plastic economy. It demonstrates our commitment to advancing the chemical recycling industry by supporting one of the leading companies in commercialising promising technologies. This partnership also supports Neste's goal for further growth of the company based on chemical recycling. And this is another important step towards our goal of processing more than one million tonnes of liquefied plastic waste from 2030," said Mercedes Alonso, Executive Vice President, Renewable Polymers and Chemicals at Neste.
"The Neste-Alterra partnership will unlock the full potential of the circular economy and it will enable more partners around the globe to access our technology, for the creation of a cleaner planet," said Alterra's CEO, Frederic Schmuck. "Neste is a world leader in renewable and circular solutions and access to Alterra's proprietary process is extremely rewarding and meaningful."
www.neste.com
a