Dyneon starts 'up-cycling' perfluorinated polymers

Burgkirchen, Germany – Dyneon GmbH, a subsidiary of 3M Company, is claiming a breakthrough in the field of polymer recycling with the official start-up of “the world’s first fluoropolymer up-cycling facility.”

The opening of the 500 tonnes/year pilot plant in Burgkirchen, Germany, on 26 March, represents a significant advance in closed-loop manufacturing for the polymer industry, said Dyneon.

The University of Bayreuth and the institute InVerTec provided skills and expertise for the project, which was backed by €1 million in funding from German government agency the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt.

Closing the fluoropolymer recycling loop is a major breakthrough in respect to true sustainability [for fluoropolymers used in] applications such as linings in the chemical industry and automotive parts,” said Burkhard Anders, managing director of Dyneon.

The pilot plant integrates onsite into Dyneon’s existing fluoropolymer production lines and employs pyrolysis to decompose perfluorinated polymers, recovering gaseous monomers, which are cleaned prior to feeding them back into the manufacture of new materials. “The up-cycling facility and process will abruptly change the way all of us think and do things.

Now, what was once regarded as a useless waste stream or at best a by-product with little utility is a valuable material,” said Klaus Hintzer, corporate scientist at 3M. The facility will process end-of-life fluoropolymer materials from both Dyneon and its customers.

Initially, the plant will process fully fluorinated polymers such as PTFE, PFA and FEP, but the second phase will target polymer compounds containing fillers.

“The savings promise to be enormous,” said a statement from Dyneon, pointing out that significant reductions in energy, waste and emissions can be achieved with the technology.

“Working backwards to the initial materials, there is the recovered monomer, a valuable resource that fluoropolymer manufacturers no longer have to procure, while less mining, heavy transport and use of hazardous chemicals is good news for the environment," the company said.