Usually, chemical recycling refers to technologies that break down long plastic polymer chains into their basic building blocks by chemical reactions. These secondary raw materials can then be used to replace fossil raw materials in chemical production. Commonly used methods in this regard are pyrolysis, in which plastics are converted into pyrolysis oil, and gasification, with which plastic waste is converted into syngas.
Another common method is the depolymerization of plastics, also known as solvolysis or re-monomerization. In this process, plastics are broken down into their monomers, from which the polymer can be rebuilt. The material obtained from depolymerization therefore re-enters the chemical value chain at a later stage than pyrolysis oil or syngas. However, this also means that single-stream plastic waste is required for this process. Suitable input materials are single plastics like polyamide (PA) or polyurethane (PUR).
There are also other technologies like hydrogenation. All technologies are needed to transform the linear plastic value chain into more circularity. BASF supports a technology-neutral definition of recycling.