Kordsa, a leader in tire and construction reinforcement and composite technologies, has joined a new project under the EU’s R&D and innovation programme Horizon 2020. The project called PolynSPIRE1 aims at improving the overall performance of plastics recycling looking for a more sustainable plastic value chain.

The company is among 22 project partners participating in the PolynSPIRE project under the Horizon 2020 programme to strengthen the research and technology development capacity of Europe, promote university-industry cooperation and develop cooperation in various fields.

The main objective of PolynSPIRE is to demonstrate a set of innovative, cost-effective and sustainable solutions for efficient plastic recycling. KoWi, the European Liaison Office of German Research Companies, hosted the kick off meeting of the project on 25 September in Brussels. The project partners, who came together at the kick off meeting, had the chance to get to know each other, as well as discussing the project management process and technical details of the recycling processes. At the meeting, Kordsa's R&D team shared its role and expectations in the project.

The PolynSPIRE project consists of 22 partner organisations from 11 countries lead by CIRCE, Research Centre for Energy Resources and Consumption. The project has a duration of 48 months and three innovation pillars are addressed.

The first pillar is the chemical recycling assisted by microwaves and smart magnetic catalysts. The second innovation is advanced additivities and high energy irradiation to enhance recycled plastics quality. These two innovations can lead up to 33% of fossil fuel direct reduction for the production of polyester, polyamide and polyurethane.

As the third output of the Project, valorization of plastic waste as carbon source in steel industry is expected which can lead to reductions of around 80% of fossil carbon sources in electric arc furnaces.

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