Schneider Electric collaborates with GR3N to tackle plastic recycling challenges and drive circularity in chemical sector
- GR3N's breakthrough new process to address current hard to recycle PET waste while meeting virgin-like quality
-
Schneider Electric's software-defined automation system enabling operational agility to scale from proof of concept to industrial level - Together, companies are fostering innovation, driving circularity across the chemicals sector
With 50% of global plastic waste ending up in landfills and only 9% recycled, GR3N developed MADE, the Microwave Assisted DEpolymerization solution. This new process breaks down PET into its chemical building blocks that can be recombined to create new PET pellets with virgin-like quality for packaging and textiles, effectively closing the loop for hard to recycle plastic. The technology is based on alkaline hydrolysis, and it can manage a higher amount of impurities compared to the existing ones.
In
The software-defined automation system decouples hardware from software, allowing devices and equipment to be freely connected across architecture layers, regardless of manufacturer. It acts as the digital backbone of industrial operations at the plant, providing the foundation to make more informed decisions. This approach allows MADE to be also technological demonstration of a new generation of automation systems, where the intertwining between OT and IT enables the exploitation of advanced functionalities for operations management and data analytics.
"Through software-defined automation and hardware independence, we have been able to effectively de-risk our operations and push the boundaries of our technology," said
Due to EcoStruxure Automation Expert's modular, agnostic nature, GR3N was able to choose the optimal technology for the demonstration plant and easily scale to new sites. Benefits include:
- Industrial scalability – significantly minimizes the risk of investment during the scale-up of GR3N's technology towards the First of a Kind (FOAK) industrial plant, while offering a new way to protect its intellectual property as process licensor.
-
Design flexibility – vendor and hardware agnostic system enabled GR3N to design the best possible solution without being held back by vendor lock in or being impacted by supply chain issues.
-
Engineering time and time-to-market reduction – the modular design of control software, supported by digital continuity across the whole plant lifecycle with automation-focused decision making happening at conception, reduces human error at the development stage by 40%.
-
Control simplification – Vendor-independence allows controls to be distributed or centralized depending on need.
-
New opportunities – OT/IT integration provides new opportunities for efficiency and optimization across the whole value chain. thanks to a seamless incorporation of advanced data analytics techniques.
-
Reduced costs – the software-defined approach to automation is expected to reduce engineering costs by 30%.
- Next-gen workforce – attracts the next generation of workers with a systems that shared similarities with those in IT.
Global demand for plastics is expected to triple by 2060, with the amount of plastics in the ocean predicted to outweigh fish. Meeting demand and curbing pollution, while achieving net zero by 2050, requires a consumption model revolution.
The partnership between
"Every year, people produce around 460 million tons of plastic, approximately 70% of which are sent to landfills or mismanaged," said
"If we want to overcome the scale of plastic waste, there are certain non-negotiables. We must see integration across the whole product cycle, modularization to optimize and standardize engineering processes, as well as software defined automation solutions that delivers scalability, break siloes and acts as a gateway to advanced analytics. This project with GR3N demonstrates all of these principles, improving flexibility, scalability and the efficiency of their solution and enabling them to grow to an industrial scale."
Related resources:
- Interview video from the Globuc Go Circular event,
April 2024 : How microwave-assisted PET recycling - interview withDelphine Largeteau ,SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC (youtube.com) -
A Circular Economy for Plastics and Polymers |
Schneider Electric (se.com )
About
Schneider's purpose is to create Impact by empowering all to make the most of our energy and resources, bridging progress and sustainability. At Schneider, we call this Life Is On.
Our mission is to be the trusted partner in Sustainability and Efficiency.
We are a global industrial technology leader bringing world-leading expertise in electrification, automation and digitization to smart industries, resilient infrastructure, future-proof data centers, intelligent buildings, and intuitive homes. Anchored by our deep domain expertise, we provide integrated end-to-end lifecycle AI enabled Industrial IoT solutions with connected products, automation, software and services, delivering digital twins to enable profitable growth for our customers.
We are a people company with an ecosystem of 150,000 colleagues and more than a million partners operating in over 100 countries to ensure proximity to our customers and stakeholders. We embrace diversity and inclusion in everything we do, guided by our meaningful purpose of a sustainable future for all.
About GR3N
GR3N developed an innovative process, based on the application of microwave technology to alkaline hydrolysis, which provides an economically viable approach to the recycling of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), allowing the industrial implementation.
The GR3N process is economically sustainable and industrially viable as it breaks down any type of PET and polyester plastic into its two core components (TPA and MEG monomers), which can then be re-assembled to obtain virgin-like plastics allowing endless recycling loops. This new process has the potential to change how PET is recycled worldwide, with huge benefits both for the recycling industry and for the entire polyester value chain. The company's goal is to become the world-leading supplier of recycled PET and polyester, addressing the global need for virgin plastics and triggering a truly circular approach to plastic recycling. GR3N is part of PETCORE Europe, Chemical Recycling Europe, and Accelerating Circularity.
Follow us on: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | YouTube | Instagram | Blog
Discover the newest perspectives shaping sustainability, electricity 4.0, and next-generation automation on
Hashtags: #Plasticrecycling #IndustriesOfTheFuture #IndustrialAutomation #DigitalTransformation #Openautomation #software #universalautomation
View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/schneider-electric-collaborates-with-gr3n-to-tackle-plastic-recycling-challenges-and-drive-circularity-in-chemical-sector-302241227.html
SOURCE