Transporting Pyrolysis Oil "Bio-Oil" for Major Customers
Global plastic production is estimated to be around 300 million tons per year and is continuously increasing every year. However, the proliferation of waste plastics that contaminate rivers, oceans, and landfills each year has also brought adverse environmental impacts. This has now become a major global challenge and has sparked a strong interest in more efficient production, use, and disposal of plastics, in line with the principles of the circular economy.
In mid-2021, we were approached by one of our major customers to assist them with a new project—transporting pyrolysis oil to their site, where they would start commercial production of new quality polymers made from raw materials derived from plastic waste.
What is pyrolysis?
Pyrolysis is the thermal degradation of plastic waste at different temperatures (300–900°C), in the absence of oxygen, to produce liquid oil, called Pyrolysis oil or Bio-oil. Three dedicated containers are currently in operation to transport the pyrolysis oil between the loading points in Spain and the plant in Germany.
Pyrolysis projects
Thanks to our experience with the transport of pyrolysis oil, we recently also started to ship Pyrolysis oil on behalf of an additional customer from Spain to the Netherlands. There, the Pyrolysis oil is used to feed their cracker in order to (partially) replace fossil products as feedstock. The client intends to steadily increase the production volume, which is a big challenge for their supply chain.
In the near future, more pyrolysis-plants will be built all over the globe and as we are now the preferred logistics services provider for two of the major chemical producers, the scope to work on similar projects and set-ups which perfectly fit in our network, offers great opportunities for growth in this market segment. On top of that, it adds to our own commitment as a company on supporting the circular economy and a sustainable supply chain (‘green liner’, ‘isotainer vs flexibag, etc.). Recently, we also imported the first isotainers with pyrolysis oil from Malaysia to Rotterdam.
