Viva Energy achieves major plastic recycling milestone

VIVA Energy says it has taken a big step forward in diverting discarded plastics from landfill.

It successfully processed more than 9.5 tonnes of plastic pyrolysis oil (PPO) at its Geelong refinery last week, demonstrating the suitability of the facility to transform pyrolysis oil made from discarded soft plastics into new food-grade recycled plastics.

The trial also proved Viva Energy has the capability to process large volumes of PPO.

It was also a step toward Viva’s goal of establishing a jointly owned soft plastic recycling facility with waste management company Cleanaway, which has been piloting options for collecting and sorting used soft plastics.

Viva Energy’s Bill Patterson said it was exciting progress.

“This initiative is a critical step in demonstrating the various roles our facility can play in the energy transition, establishing a circular economy and helping to address Australia’s discarded plastic issue.”

The focus of the trial was on whether contaminants such as chlorides and metals would impact either the design of the joint-venture facility or the ability of the refinery to process PPO volumes at scale.

Lessons from the trial will be used to inform future investment and provide an understanding of how to maximise the volumes of soft plastics that can be processed.

The PPO processed in Geelong was made from end-of-life plastic in Akron, Ohio, in the US, by Alterra, a leading developer of plastic recycling technology.

Viva Energy obtained federal government approval to import that quantity of PPO to allow the demonstration to proceed, reflecting the commercially relevant PPO quality and volumes that will be produced from the proposed soft plastic recycling facility.

While Viva Energy has processed small volumes of PPO in the past, this volume allowed testing of both the Geelong Refinery infrastructure capability and downstream product-quality impacts.