Mitsubishi Chemical promotes commercialization of PC resin recycling

Mitsubishi Chemical announced that it is pushing ahead with the implementation of commercial polycarbonate (PC) resin recycling. By 2030, Mitsubishi Chemical will have an annual processing capacity of 10,000 tons of PC resin recycling material to commercialize the chemical recycling of PC resin.

The company's experimental facility at the Fukuoka plant in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, is currently under construction. After completion in August this year, the company plans to complete the verification test between 2023 and 2024 to promote commercialization. The experimental project has been approved by Japan's Environment Ministry and received an annual subsidy for emission reduction projects, it said.

PC resin is an engineering plastic with good transparency, impact resistance, heat resistance and dimensional stability, used in automotive interior trim, headlights and construction materials, Mitsubishi Chemical said. At present, the used PC resin is usually used as the material after grinding and melting to be recycled. However, if the resin deteriorates or is mixed with different resins, it will not be able to obtain a regenerated resin of sufficient quality. And through the way of chemical recovery, depolymerization of used PC resin, reduction into raw material monomer, and then repolymerization, you can recycle a wider range of used PC resin into high-quality recycled PC resin.

In addition to establishing chemical recycling technology, Mitsubishi Chemical is also focusing on establishing a recycling system for used PC resin and plans to actively promote cooperation with companies that use PC resin in their products. In addition, the company will also start research and development of high value-added PC resin from the near future, to further strengthen and expand the engineering plastics business.