On 26 March 2015, Dyneon GmbH, together with its cooperating partners, the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt, the University of Bayreuth and the institute Invertec, cut the tape on the world’s first fluoropolymer up-cycling facility in Burgkirchen, Germany. The new pilot plant is a breakthrough in Dyneon’s sustainable development goal of closed-loop manufacturing. The plant is designed to up-cycle up to 500 t of fluoropolymer waste annually.
“We are exceedingly grateful to the University of Bayreuth and the institute Invertec for contributing the exceptional ideas, skills, teamwork and execution and for the gracious and farsighted funding of the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt. Without their support, this momentous project would never have been possible nor would it have come to fruition,” stated Burkhard Anders, managing director of Dyneon GmbH, a fully owned 3M Company. Closing the fluoropolymer recycling loop is a major breakthrough in respect to true sustainability for these precious materials which are indispensible in a range of applications such as linings in the chemical industry and automotive parts. In recognition of this, the project was funded with a 1 million euro grant from the German Bundesministerium für Umwelt.
From waste to product
The new pilot plant integrates seamlessly onsite into Dyneon’s existing fluoropolymer production lines and employs pyrolysis to decompose perfluorinated polymers, recovering gaseous monomers, which are cleaned prior to feeding them back into the manufacture of new materials. “The up-cycling facility and process will abruptly change the way all of us think and do things. Now, what was once regarded as a useless waste stream or at best a by-product with little utility is a valuable material,” states Dr. Klaus Hintzer, idea owner and Corporate Scientist at 3M and adds “the challenges to build this pilot facility were huge, but the benefits are even greater”. A successful implementation of the process technology is an important step in closing the fluoropolymer loop which is vital to progress and to the environment. And when considering the worlds rapidly increasing appetite for products made using fluorspar and the naturally finite availability of this mineral, especially in Europe, it couldn’t have come at a better time.
Waiting to be processed on the facility’s premises right now are end-of-life fluoropolymer materials from Dyneon and Dyneon’s customers. Initially, the plant will process fully fluorinated polymers such as PTFE, PFA and FEP, but the second phase will target polymer compounds containing fillers.
Less resources
The savings promise to be enormous. Working backwards to the initial materials, there is the recovered monomer, a valuable resource that fluoropolymer manufacturers no longer have to procure, while less mining, heavy transport and use of hazardous chemicals is good news for the environment. In addition, there are significant savings on energy, which benefits manufacturers and the environment alike. Also not to be overlooked are reduction of waste and emissions e.g. the reduction of CO2 emissions reducing carbon footprint as demonstrated by Dyneon’s laboratory test. The advantages are huge and thanks to this revolutionary invention, fluoropolymers will become even more important in future.
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