THE MISSION
Our mission is to establish processes for the chemical recycling of fluoropolymers by bringing together the diverse skills and resources of engineering companies, waste collectors, fluoropolymer producers, processors, end-users, industry associations and monomer users.
This includes the supply chains for production waste from fluoropolymer processing and for EOL polymers, as well as the development of a strategy for R22-free production of fluoropolymers based on secondary raw materials.
Building on all these interests, Element9 will establish a strong circular economy for fluorinated polymers.
BACKGROUND
Polymer recycling and the associated closing of material cycles is an essential development task for the polymer industry. Materials such as fluoropolymers occupy a special position due to their chemical composition, their low market volume and their mostly industrial application, as they cannot be recycled together with bulk polymers such as polyethylene at the end of their life cycle.
Fully fluorinated polymers will have a market share of around 29 kt in 2020, representing the majority of fluorinated polymers. The disadvantage of energy and resource intensive production can be compensated in the case of perfluorinated polymers by the fact that, in addition to mechanical recycling of sorted production waste from polymer processing, contaminated EOL material can also be chemically recycled with high yields of up to 90% based on the CF2 content in the polymer.
THE VISION
Element9 is also actively promoting recycling efforts for partially fluorinated polymers such as THV, PVDF, ETFE, FKM, etc. or compounds and laminates of perfluorinated polymers with hydrocarbon polymers in order to use such technologies on a large scale.
It is also mandatory that all efforts/activities of Element 9 are guided by the zero-emission strategy.
Based on these activities, the fluorine cycle will be closed for all fluoropolymers.