Royal DSM and Clariter have announced a strategic partnership to pursue an innovative chemical recycling solution for products based on Dyneema®. DSM’s Dyneema is an ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fiber, described as being 15 times stronger than steel at the same weight. Dyneema is used in the production of nets, outdoor gear, apparel, footwear, protective armor, and various industrial products like ropes, lines, slings and synthetic chains.
As a first step in the collaboration, sample products and materials made with Dyneema were converted at Clariter’s pilot recycling plant in Poland. The test’s positive results demonstrated the technical viability of transforming Dyneema-based end-products into the industrial, ready-to-use product families of oils, waxes, and solvents via Clariter’s patented three-step chemical recycling process. Building on the lab-scale pilot’s success, Clariter has now scheduled commercial-scale trials at its facility in South Africa for 2021, intending to use Dyneema-derived feedstock in the full-scale European plants that it will build in the coming years.
Royal DSM, founded in 1902, is a Dutch multinational corporation active in nutrition, health and sustainable living. Clariter is a clean-tech innovation company with offices in Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Poland and Israel. Clariter has created a chemical recycling (upcycling) process that provides a large-scale solution for the plastic waste problem. Instead of recycling plastic waste into intermediates that will require further processing, Clariter transforms plastic waste into three industrial, ready-to-use product families: oils, waxes, and solvents. These fossil-fuel alternatives are used as ingredients to make more than a thousand end- and consumer products.
