"Industry in Transition: Prospects of various material cycles in an internationally competitive landscape"

Talk description:

The chemical industry is undergoing major upheaval. While Europe—and Flanders in particular—traditionally hosted strong clusters for supplying basic molecules, the energy transition and current geopolitical shifts appear to be moving the centre of gravity towards Asia. All this comes at a moment when new recycling activities, supported by incentivising policies, were finally taking off. In this perfect storm, navigating the landscape is challenging, even for pioneers of novel circular technologies. Although chemical recycling can certainly play an important role, it currently faces stiff competition from cheap international commodities. Mechanical recycling, meanwhile, is not always capable of delivering sufficient product quality and often relies on temporary market premiums. On the one hand, new regulations do provide a genuine boost for the recycling industry, but a clear and stable framework is urgently needed. Strategically—also for companies themselves—it is crucial to maintain control over the keys to sustainable materials. This lecture provides an overview of various chemical recycling technologies for different polymer types and explores their prospects in light of the outlined competitiveness challenges.

Who?

Pieter Billen is a chemical engineer and professor at the University of Antwerp, where he leads the iPRACS research group. His work focuses on bridging experimental chemistry and process design to enable circularity in organic materials. In the search for industrial relevance, the emerging framework of entropy management provides valuable guidance. The group’s activities are, as befits engineering, highly interdisciplinary, taking on catalytic, thermodynamic, and economic challenges alike. Their research portfolio includes several projects on the chemical recycling of polyamides, polyurethanes, and rubbers, as well as on the synthesis and modification of bio-based materials.