Urbaser is a world leader in environmental management serving more than 50 million people in around 25 countries. Its mission is to provide global and integrated proposals adapted to the needs of its clients. Urbaser organises its activities into two major lines: citizen services (urban waste collection, landscaping, and street cleaning) and urban/industrial waste treatment. It develops the design, construction, commissioning and maintenance of recycling, energy recovery and waste disposal facilities. Urbaser have one of the most important facilities in Spain for research applied to waste management, the Alfonso Maíllo Innovation Centre (CIAM), located in Zaragoza. At this centre, innovation projects at a prototype scale are implemented in a relevant environment for technology validation and demonstration. Some of current research lines include how to obtain new raw materials from plastic waste, and high bio-added products as biomethane from organic waste.
Involved technology: Microwave assisted pyrolysis
Involved demo-site: Spain, Zaragoza (URBASER)
Role: waste manager – post-consumer plastic waste supplier – demo-site of microwaves- assisted pyrolysis.
URBASER, as a waste manager, will treat post-consumer plastic waste recovered from Municipal Solid Waste (MSW). It will adapt the current chemical recycling pilot plant located in the Zaragoza innovation centre to obtain pyrolysis liquids that will later be transformed into new plastic materials in the project. It will install a new microwave-assisted pyrolysis technology that will provide a more efficient process compared to conventional pyrolysis, achieving a totally renewable approach. It will also upgrade the plastic waste pre-treatment line in order to ensure a high-yield to pyrolysis liquids, constant product composition, and operational stability.
