Consortium for Waste Circularity | 63Gasification promises solution to landfill crisisA pilot project run by the University of Florida has demonstrated that gasifcation plants can recover chemical feedstock from mixed packaging waste. Now a consortium of packaging groups aims to scale the process up, as Andy Thomas-Emans reports400-year-old technology to derive fammable gas from fossil “Any other model of collecting and fuels could provide the key to sustainability for today’s label and packaging industries, according to a presentation by the A processing packaging waste is just Consortium for Waste Circularity (CWC) delivered at the TLMI Eco Stage at Labelexpo Americas.chopping at the edges”The Consortium vision proposes using demonstrated pilot robust gasifcation technology at a landfll site to transform all unrecycled pilot-scale trials for packaging industry stakeholders. Trials are organic waste into methanol - the precursor for manufacturing proving the promise of the process’s robustness. plastics. Ferrari says, ‘to date, no material has been refused, and all trials, The principles of gasifcation were established in the 1600s even those laden with chlorinated barrier polymer, PVDC, have when experimenters discovered that heating organic materials to been successful.’temperatures above 700degC with a controlled amount of oxygen Robust gasifcation can accept all organic waste including food, or steam breaks their molecular bonds to produce synthetic gas, or corrugate, paper, multi-layer packages, with ftments, unwashed syngas, consisting of carbon and hydrogen. peanut butter jars, fexo plates, all plastic flms regardless of layers, By the 1850s, coal-based gasifcation was producing ‘town gas’ metallization, chlorine, PFAS, etc. All organic feedstock with no that powered streetlights in cities across the US and Europe. exception can produce syngas and resulting in post-consumer In principle, everything that can be made from fossil fuels can recycled-content Eco-Methanol.also be made from syngas. Syngas can be converted into feedstock By co-locating regenerative robust gasifcation facilities at chemicals such as methanol, ethanol, dimethyl ether and acetic landflls, landfll gas (methane) can be collected to power the acid to be used for subsequent synthesis by the chemical industry. process. Additionally, landfll area is freed up, potentially to install solar power to also power the gasifcation process. Ancient principles for today’s problems ‘The real breakthrough idea is that you co-locate regenerative The Consortium for Waste Circularity employs a more advanced gasifcation plants with a landfll making this compatible with all form of gasifcation technology, though still based on the same current recycling streams,’ Ferrari says. ‘So whatever comes to the fundamental principles, called robust gasifcation. This process landfll can be processed and the logistics are already in place,’ achieves higher temperatures than previous gasifcation – in says Ferrari.excess of 2,000degC. At these temperatures, organic chemical ‘We are taking any kind of mixed label and packaging waste. It bonds are broken, and inorganic materials are melted down. does not have to be pre-sorted and everything can be recovered Carbon-rich organics are primarily converted into syngas while without any harmful emissions. Any other model of collecting and metals and inorganic oxides, primarily metals and glass, are processing packaging waste is just chopping away at the edges.’ melted down and recovered as ingots and glassy materials. All One of the most diffcult packaging-related products to recycle is these products become feedstocks for subsequent value-added the fexo plate. commercial applications. MacDermid engaged the University of Florida to test its fexo There are two key innovations in the business model pursued by plates that were sent to a laboratory size robust gasifer where they the CWC. Firstly, to co-locate the gasifcation plant with landflls were successfully processed. ‘And those plates were contaminated to provide an almost limitless amount of feedstock, and secondly with inks when they were shredded and fed to the gasifcation to sell the methanol (called Eco-Methanol) derived from syngas plant,’ Ferrari points out.to the plastics industry. Methanol can be used as a feedstock for The Consortium for Waste Circularity is now seeking private manufacturing plastics. equity backing to create the frst commercial scale plant at a Plastics produced from syngas-derived eco-methanol are ‘virgin’ landfll sites across Florida to prove the concept at scale. Founder plastics with the same quality and properties as plastics produced members of the CWC are the Flexible Packaging Association, from fossil fuels. ‘Waste-to-syngas-to-methanol-to-plastics offers a Belmark, the PPI Technologies Group, Sixto Packaging, Tamperguard, true pathway to the sustainable circular economy,’ proclaims Mike Intertape Polymer Group (IPG) and Tempo Flexible Packaging.Ferrari, president of the Consortium for Waste Circularity. Ferrari speaks passionately about why the gasifcation project Ferrari points out that some 85 percent of landfll volume needs to succeed.consists of organic waste, which includes mixed packaging waste. ‘Firstly, our major cities are rapidly running out of landfll space Because gasifcation is not incineration – the chemical bonds are and in many cases are trucking waste to other states for burial. broken at a temperature below the combustion point - there are Secondly, landflls are the third biggest source of CO2 emissions no smokestacks, few carbon emissions and no toxic ash, all typical globally. Other carbon-intensive industries like aerospace have by-products of incineration. already committed to net zero carbon and the packaging and waste industries need to make a similar commitment.’ Pilot programThe technology has been used commercially to treat hazardous To fnd out more about the Consortium for Waste Circularity’s chemical and medical wastes. The CWC has been working with work, visit wastecircularity.orgProfessor Bruce Welt at the University of Florida to arrange Oct - Dec 2022