McDermott wins contract for Michelin chemical recycling project

Houston, Texas – US engineering firm McDermott International has been awarded a front-end engineering design (FEED) contract from Michelin Group for the construction of a plastic waste recycling plant.

The project will industrialise, for the first time, “an innovative plastic recycling process” which produces regenerated styrene from polystyrene, said McDermott in a 28 April statement. 

The company did not elaborate on the recycling technology or the whereabouts of the plant, but said the regenerated styrene produced by the unit will be used in the production of synthetic rubber for tires and polystyrene.

However, McDermott's said its office in Brno, the Czech Republic, will execute the work, which is expected to be completed in third quarter 2021.

According to McDermott, the “groundbreaking process” will advance new generation of sustainable tires to be manufactured by Michelin.

The award builds on a long-standing relationship between McDermott and Michelin, which have worked together since 2008 at varying stages of production, from design to start up, said Tareq Kawash McDermott SVP, Europe, Middle East, Africa. 

McDermott will provide value engineering, risk analysis and a detailed constructability study within this “industry-first FEED". 

Michelin has previously signalled its interest in chemical recycling technology.

Last November, the tire maker announced a joint development agreement with Canadian plastics recycling startup Pyrowave to commercialise its microwave-based chemical recycling technology. (See ERJ report)

Also, this month Michelin announced a collaboration with the French biochemicals company Carbios for the use of recycled PET monomers to produce tire fibre. (See ERJ report)

The new plastics recycling plant will bring Michelin one step closer to its target of 100% sustainable tires by 2050.