Riken Technos Begins Full-Scale Development of De-chlorination and Oil Conversion Technology for Chlorine-Containing Waste Plastics

Riken Technos Corporation, in collaboration with Assist Co., Ltd. and K-CIP Co., Ltd., has launched full-scale development of technology for de-chlorinating and converting chlorine-containing waste plastics into oil with extremely low chlorine content through thermal decomposition.

The three companies have signed a joint research and development agreement aimed at advancing this technology at a pilot scale to reduce the chlorine content in the recovered oil to 10ppm or less.

In recent years, issues regarding waste plastic and carbon dioxide emissions have gained prominence, emphasizing the need for carbon neutrality and resource circulation. A significant portion of domestic waste plastic in Japan is currently processed through thermal recovery, and research and development for recycling are active. One promising option for handling mixed waste plastic is chemical recycling. When converting waste plastic into oil, removing chlorine components derived from materials such as PVC is crucial, as their presence makes the resulting oil difficult to use as fuel or chemical feedstock.

The three companies have been collaborating on this development for several years and have successfully developed, at the lab scale, a de-chlorination and oil conversion technology that yields recovered oil with a residual chlorine concentration of 10ppm or less from raw plastic containing approximately 8wt% chlorine.

Following this success, the companies have signed a joint R&D agreement to accelerate development. They aim to construct a pilot-scale facility in 2027, focusing on reproducing the results of the lab experiments.

The results of this study will be presented at the 'Automotive Engineering Exposition 2026 YOKOHAMA,' to be held at Pacifico Yokohama from May 27 to 29.