● Construction and operation of an innovative fully automated sorting plant with a capacity of up to 260,000 t per year in Walldürn, Germany.
● Processing of mixed plastics into raw materials for OMV chemical recycling.
OMV investment volume amounts to over EUR 170 million

October 31, 2023 – OMV, the integrated energy, fuels and raw materials, chemicals and materials company headquartered in Vienna, today announces the final investment decision for the construction of an innovative sorting plant developed by Interzero* to produce raw materials for chemical recycling. OMV will invest a total of more than EUR 170 million in the construction of this state-of-the-art plant in Walldürn in southern Germany. OMV will hold 89.9 percent of the shares in the joint venture and 10.1 percent of the shares will be held by Interzero, the leading provider of closed-loop solutions in Europe.

The new plant is scheduled to start production in 2026. A total of around 120 new jobs will be created at the new site. The groundbreaking ceremony is already planned for November 20, 2023 with guests from politics.

The sorting plant will be the first of its kind to produce raw materials for OMV’s chemical recycling on a large industrial scale. The ReOil® technology developed and patented by OMV is a chemical recycling innovation that converts mechanically non-recyclable plastic waste into pyrolysis oil – a valuable resource. The input material for the sorting plant is essentially mixed plastics that have not been recyclable up to now, in particular from the separate collection through the yellow bag and the yellow garbage can in Germany.

Dr. Alfred Stern, CEO of OMV: “Technology and innovation are core to progress. We therefore invest and partner to develop and scale innovative technologies on an industrial scale. It is our stated strategic goal to become a leading provider of solutions for sustainable fuels, chemicals and materials, and to play a key role in the circular economy. The joint project with Interzero will provide feedstock for our ReOil® technology, which in turn will transform it into high-quality sustainable raw materials for plastics production. In this way, we are making a significant contribution to the creation of a circular economy for plastics.”

Dr. Axel Schweitzer, Chairman and Partner of Interzero: “With Interzero, we are following the vision of a world without waste. Chemical recycling and mechanical recycling can be used in a complementary way and each helps us to realize this vision. I am convinced that with the help of chemical recycling, the recycling rate in Germany can and will increase significantly in the future. Our unique, fully automated sorting plant, which does not require any manual sorting, is a significant step toward giving a second life to raw materials that were previously incinerated. Closing loops requires strong partners. Together, we want to think long-term and combine our pioneering Interzero expertise, especially in the areas of packaging licensing and sorting, with OMV’s leading expertise in chemical recycling to close this raw material loop as well.”

Interzero operates five sorting facilities for lightweight packaging in Germany and, with over 800,000 t per year, sorts around one third of Germany’s lightweight packaging waste. This means that the company currently has the largest sorting capacity in Europe and is the technology leader.

The cooperation between OMV and Interzero ensures the supply of sustainable and high-quality raw materials for chemical recycling to OMV in order to close the loop for plastics. The innovative, state-of-the-art sorting facility developed by Interzero will have the capacity to process up to 260,000 tons of mixed waste plastics per year, providing the raw materials for the production of virgin polyolefins. This innovative sorting process enables the recovery of a polyolefin-rich fraction from a waste stream that currently ends up in thermal recycling. In terms of the waste hierarchy, the focus is therefore on the used plastics used here, which are not suitable for mechanical recycling. This ensures that chemical recycling does not compete with mechanical recycling. The sorting process used in the new sorting plant has already been tested on an industrial scale, and the product has been successfully processed as a feedstock in OMV’s ReOil® pilot plant.

A new ReOil® plant with a capacity of 16,000 t per year is currently being built at OMV’s Schwechat site. Like the existing pilot plant, the new plant will also have ‘International Sustainability and Carbon’ certification (ISCC PLUS), which ensures traceability throughout the supply chain and ensures that the value chain meets all environmental and social standards. The ReOil® plant will meet the highest industrial safety standards and will be fully integrated into the petrochemical area of the Schwechat refinery, allowing OMV to ensure optimal use of resources and maximum efficiency. The next step is the development of an industrial-scale ReOil® plant with a planned capacity of 200,000 t per year.