We won the Business Start-up Award in IChemE

A world first process to sustainably chemically recycle contaminated plastic waste that cannot be mechanically recycled has won the top award at the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) Global Awards 2020. This novel process could play a significant role in solving the global plastic waste challenge, while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions compared to alternative processes using fossil fuels to convert this waste to energy.

For the past 10 years, Plastic Energy has developed its own patented technology able to convert contaminated and mixed plastic waste - such as polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene - into a feedstock to produce virgin quality plastic, which is then manufactured and sold in food packaging by international leaders in the food industry. This technology has been supported by key figures in the plastic debate, including Sir David Attenborough.

Plastic Energy is currently upscaling its capacity from processing 20 tonnes per day to 60–75 tonnes per day, plus the company is developing additional projects worldwide. For this project, Plastic Energy won the Innovative Product and Sustainability categories, before it was crowned with the coveted Outstanding Achievement in Chemical and Process Engineering Award.

This year’s awards showcased incredible achievements across 20 categories, with the winners announced in a series of webinars from 2–19 November 2020 where finalists presented their projects and took questions from the online audience. This year three new categories were introduced to the awards programme.

For more information on the IChemE Global Awards visit www.icheme.org/globalawards

Official winners of the IChemE Global Awards 2020

Business Start-up Award

Winner: The University of Hong Kong, China – Direct Thermal Charging Cell

Highly commended:

BioSimulytics, Ireland – Crystal-structure Prediction in Solid-state

IChemE

The Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) advances chemical engineering's contribution worldwide for the benefit of society. We support the development of chemical engineering professionals and provide connections to a powerful network of around 35,000 members in 100 countries.