TotalEnergies reports Texas chemical recycling startup

TotalEnergies' chemical recycling facility in La Porte, Texas, has started to produce sustainably certified polymers suitable for a wide range of applications, including food-grade packaging.

The La Porte campus, about 25 miles from Houston, is described by TotalEnergies as one of the world's largest virgin polypropylene sites. Now, the firm says, “For the first time in the United States, TotalEnergies has converted feedstocks from plastic [scrap] into circular polymers at its polypropylene [PP] plant” there.

The France-based company, with U.S. offices in Houston, says the scrap feedstock was provided by an ISCC Plus certified advanced recycling facility in Tyler, Texas, operated by New Hope Energy. The feedstock was converted into monomers at the BASF TotalEnergies Petrochemicals (BTP) facility, which a 60/40 joint venture between BASF and TotalEnergies based in Port Arthur, Texas.

From Port Arthur, the material was shipped to the La Porte PP facility, where it was transformed into circular polymers, according to Total Energies. Both the La Porte and BTP facilities received their International Sustainability & Carbon (ISCC) Plus certification in 2022.

TotalEnergies has signed a multiyear agreement with New Hope Energy under which New Hope Energy will supply TotalEnergies with petrochemical feedstock made from plastics to produce recycled polymers.

New Hope Energy uses a patented pyrolysis technology developed in partnership with Lummus Technology to process and convert mixed plastic scrap.

“After Europe, this first production of circular polymers from advanced recycling in the United States is a new step forward in our commitment to meeting the global market’s growing demand for more innovative and sustainable plastics, as well as in our ambition to produce 1 million tons of circular polymers a year by 2030,” says Heather Tomas, a vice president with TotalEnergies.

“This supply agreement is an important step toward achieving New Hope’s goal of creating pyrolysis projects at a scale that will materially improve the nation’s plastic recycling performance,” New Hope Energy CEO Rusty Combs adds.