Mura Technology opens doors to world’s first commercial scale HydroPRS™

Mura Technology has today opened the world’s first commercial-scale HydroPRS™ advanced plastic recycling plant in Teesside, UK, to key representatives from the advanced recycling and plastic manufacturing value chains. The region’s local Mayor, Ben Houchen, was also in attendance and delivered a speech to the audience, highlighting the positive impact of the new site on the local economy and workforce. The event marks the beginning of commissioning, with the first recycled hydrocarbon products expected to be delivered to Mura’s offtake partners in early 2024.
Key figures from the plastics industry in attendance included Marco ten Bruggencate, Dow’s Commercial VP for EMEA and the President of industry body Plastics Europe, Benny Mermans, Vice President of Sustainability at Chevron Phillips Chemical (CPChem) and Jinsuk Kim, Managing Director of LG Chem Europe. Doug Kelly, Vice President of Technology at KBR, Mura’s License and Engineering Partner, also attended, alongside Dr Paul Davidson, Director of UK Research & Innovation’s Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging Challenge, delivered by Innovate UK.
The purpose-built facility at the Wilton International industrial site will process flexible and rigid mixed plastics, including films, that are currently considered ‘unrecyclable’.
The HydroPRS™ process complements mechanical recycling and enables a circular plastics economy through the production of recycled plastic feedstock for the manufacture of new plastic.
The site has capacity to produce 20ktpa of recycled liquid hydrocarbon products, with scope to expand production capacity to over three times this initial size. Located at Wilton International, Teesside, the site will provide up to 50 direct jobs, having created approximately 150 jobs during the build and commissioning phases, and approximately 100 further jobs2 within related infrastructure to support operations.