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Dyneon's new plant to recycle PTFE wastes

20 Aug '12

2 min read

Dyneon GmbH, the worldwide leader in production, development and sales of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), is constructing a pilot plant for recycling PTFE wastes. The company, which is a subsidiary of the US-based multinational corporation 3M, is building the plant at its own integrated production site in Bavaria, Germany.

According to experts, PTFE processing creates around 20,000 metric tons of waste annually worldwide. This waste material is currently either thermally degraded or landfilled, which incurs an extra cost to the processor.

In the new process, the PTFE waste materials will be heated in a reactor and split into raw gaseous components, cleaned and fed back into the new PTFE production, without impacting the quality of the product. The plant is estimated to recycle over 500 metric tons of PTFE wastes into full value raw materials.

When operating at its maximum capacity, the process will save nearly 10,000 metric tons of hydrochloric acid wastes, 7,500 megawatt hours of energy and 7,500 tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere annually. Thus, the environmental benefits are endless.

The University of Bayreuth in Germany has supported the development of the process. The project was one of the 200 concepts that were featured at the Berlin-organized 'Week of the Environment' exhibition in June.

The German Federal Environment Ministry under its Environmental Innovation Program has contributed €1 million to support the concept. The ministry-backed program appreciates innovations in environmental improvement, nature conservation and reactor safety projects, and also supports first-time large scale application of new technologies.

Technical Textiles News Desk - India