Alterra investment is latest LyondellBasell recycling move

Chemical majors LyondellBasell and Chevron Phillips Chemical have invested an undisclosed amount in recycling technology company Alterra to help commercialize chemical recycling technology for plastics.

Finnish oil refiner Neste also was among the investors, according to a press release. 

Alterra’s plant in Akron, Ohio, uses a thermal liquefaction process to break down plastic polymers to their molecular building blocks to be used as feedstock for more plastics. 

In early 2023, Alterra signed a licensing agreement with Freepoint Eco-Systems Holdings to put its technology in a chemical recycling facility on the Gulf Coast with a capacity of 192,000 metric tons per year. Shell has exclusive rights to the resulting feedstock for making virgin-quality polymers.

Texas-headquartered CPChem is a global producer of polyolefins as well as intermediate chemicals and is equally owned by refiners Chevron and Phillips 66.

Shifting LyondellBasell strategy

Houston-based LyondellBasell has been aggressively investing in both mechanical and chemical recycling capacity across the globe, all while divesting its intermediate chemical assets, as it pursues vertical integration for its circular polymers.

Earlier this month, LyondellBasell announced it had closed the purchase of German recycler APK AG. The company plans to build more plants and to further develop the solvent-based technology to process LDPE.

In September, LyondellBasell began construction of its first commercial-scale chemical recycling plant at its existing site in Wesseling, Germany. The plant is expected to start up in 2026 and will be fed with mixed plastics sorted at its new integrated recycling hub in Knapsack, Germany, which is expected to start up in Q1 2026.  

The company this year also has acquired recycling assets in California from PreZero, sold its ethylene oxide and derivatives assets to chemical intermediates producer Ineos Oxides and opened a plastics recycling joint venture with Genox Recycling in China.

And in early 2023, LyondellBasell signed a long-term supply agreement from Nexus Circular to secure feedstock for its Circulen line of polymers. 

LyondellBasell still plans to shut down its only refinery by the end of Q1 2025 and to site its second chemical recycling investment there, executives said during a quarterly earnings call in August. The Houston refinery was originally slated to close by the end of 2023 but was delayed as a result of strong gasoline profit margins.