A pilot plant at University College London will turn waste plastic and biomass into the chemical building blocks for new plastics, fuels, and industrial products. The chemical industry relies heavily on fossil fuels to produce olefins—molecules that are the foundation of polymers, fuels, and countless manufactured goods. This project addresses the lack of commercially viable technology to make these same olefins from recycled waste feedstocks instead of crude oil. The core innovation is a multi-staged fluidised bed reactor, which the team has already proven at lab scale. This phase will design, build, and test the higher-risk elements of that reactor at pilot scale within 24 months, de-risking the technology for industrial adoption. If successful, the project could deliver a proven, scalable technology that makes recycled chemical products cost-competitive with fossil-fuel-derived ones. That would directly reduce the UK’s manufacturing costs, cut greenhouse gas emissions, and curb plastic waste. The facility will also become a permanent research and stakeholder engagement hub at UCL East, attracting investors and supporting start-ups in sustainable manufacturing. The work targets a specific industrial bottleneck—not fundamental science, but a practical demonstration that could unlock a shift in how the chemical industry sources its raw materials.
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Environmental and economic concerns related to the excessive use of fossil fuels, together with opportunities in circular economy and carbon negative technologies are paving the way for a fundamental reorganisation of the chemical industry. Oil refineries are being redesigned to couple petrochemical processes with recycled carbon productions and new thermochemical technologies more suited for small-scale operation. In this context, the invention of new (or restructured) processes for the synthesis of important chemical feedstock, such as olefins generated from waste feedstock is of crucial importance, since these molecules are fundamental building blocks for polymers, fuels and chemical industry. In order to unlock the transition to recycled products in energy and manufacturing sectors, resource efficiency, process flexibility and intensification are of critical importance. To achieve these goals, we adopted a systematic platform for innovation and to inform transformative technology. This particular methodology developed in the previous EPSRC funded projects will be used to demonstrate the manufacture of "green" chemical products, including bio-olefins from waste feedstock, at a scale relevant to industrial applications. The overall aim of RECORD is to develop and implement a commercially viable technology, based on multi-staged fluidised beds, for the conversion of biomass and plastics waste to important chemical blocks (such as light olefins) through 3 phases. Phase 1, which is the initial proof of concept has been completed with previous EPSRC funded “NOSTOS” project. The current proposal seeks funding for Phase 2: Technology De-risking and Demonstration (TDD). The objective of the TDD is to undertake a pilot scale project which can be used to prove the technical, operational, risk management and environmental compliance aspects of the UCL core fluidization technology and further enhance the process to minimise the risks for the first commercial demonstration project. The TDD programme will include specific work packages dedicated at de-risking the technology, including cold-flow test, fluid-dynamic characterization and models validation. The demonstration activities will be completed by only 24 months from the project start on the assumption that we only design, build and test the core, higher-risk elements of the multi-stage fluidised bed technology directly relevant to previous NOSTOS development work. The main output from this phase will be: An asset with an intrinsic value and strong associated IP A facility which can be operated both for stakeholders engagement and as an R&D facility at the new Manufacture Future Lab in UCL East campus A proven technology which can be readily scaled up and implemented by industries. A new Carbon Recycling Hub at MFL as an ideal interface for the delivery of technologies for bioenergy, CCUS and chemical recycling and policy support services for start-ups, established businesses, and government organisations A focal point for investors looking at the opportunity to invest in proven sustainable manufacturing technologies The RECORD technology will enable industrial stakeholders to deliver their environmental obligations for more sustainable chemicals at scale, under increasing pressure from legislation and public opinion to curb GHG emissions, reduce pollution and resource depletion. The results from this research could lay the foundation for game-changing waste conversion technologies, delivering recycled products cost-competitive with those from traditional fossil fuel, thus helping to reduce the UK’s manufacturing costs, and tackling global problems caused by natural resource depletion, GHG emissions and waste dispersion.
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