AFRY has received an engineering services contract from recycling company APK for the project development phases of the latter’s first industrial-scale plastics recycling plant in Germany.
AFRY, a Swedish engineering and design company, will construct the recycling plant using APK’s own Newcycling technology.
The project development phases are expected to be completed by Q3 2023. Initially, the plant will have the capacity of treating approximately 40,000 tons of plastic waste annually (t/a).
With the new plant, APK intends to enhance the recycling of flexible packaging materials, which generate most of the mixed plastic waste from the post-consumer feeds.
APK’s Newcycling technology is said to be a unique solvent-based process that separates the different polymers of multi-layer plastics packaging materials.
It yields recycled materials with a high level of purity appropriate for new products.
APK board member Susanne Küppers said: “Our company has an extremely dynamic development ahead of it in Germany and internationally.
“We want to show significant results by 2025. Our bar for selecting the right engineering partner was therefore very high. AFRY convinced us.”
Under the engineering contract, AFRY will work on the project development phases FEL-2 (pre-engineering) and FEL-3 (basic engineering) services for all engineering disciplines as well as permitting engineering and project scheduling.
The recycling company can make a final investment decision based on the assignment’s information and estimated investment value.
AFRY Germany Process Industries head Christian Beyer said: “We are honoured to partner with APK in this important plastic recycling project and transition towards a real circular economy for plastics.
“AFRY’s unique competence from various recycling technologies combined with process technology knowledge and local presence will add value to APK during all phases of the project development and implementation.”
In August last year, AFRY was selected by Ardagh Group to provide engineering and consulting services for the new Ardagh Metal Packaging factory and the new Ardagh Glass Packaging factory in Brazil.