Chemical recycling of PMMA for its everlasting beauty

Members, their roles, and point of this initiative

・The Japan Steel Works, Ltd. (JSW)：Provides continuous plastic decomposition technology using twin-screw extruders "TEX" developed in 1997.

・Niihama City, Ehime Prefecture：The city is calling for businesses in the city, such as restaurants, to provide and collect splash prevention boards that are no longer needed. As there are many splash prevention boards made of different materials such as polycarbonate as well as acrylic, only acrylic boards are collected from businesses in the city and provided to Sumitomo Chemical, using a handy sensor for resin identification.

・Sumitomo Chemical Co.,Ltd：Utilizes Sumitomo Chemical's expertise on MMA (methyl methacrylate) monomers and acrylic resins (PMMA, poly-methyl-methacrylate) that it has cultivated over the years.

・Point of this initiative：JSW and Sumitomo Chemical will utilise their strengths to develop and implement chemical recycling technology for acrylic resin. Niihama City in Ehime Prefecture and Sumitomo Chemical, which has a chemical recycling demonstration facility in the city, have launched an intra-regional resource recycling project, aiming to realise a recycling-oriented society in which businesses, citizens and local authorities work together.

Time started

In 2022, start a chemical recycling demonstration project.

In 2023, start a regional resource recycling project in Niihama City, Ehime Prefecture.

Technology and business model

JSW will provide a technology to efficiently and safely decompose the used acrylic resin into MMA monomer by using its twin-screw extruder "TEX," which has been dramatically improved its mixing performance and is used for a wide range of applications.

Sumitomo Chemical will produce acrylic resin from recycled MMA monomer, which is generated from decomposition of used acrylic resin, by means of its knowledge that the company has cultivated over many years, such as bulk polymerization, and so on.

Through joint development, the two companies have established a unique basic technology using a twin-screw extruder "TEX" suitable for decomposing acrylic resin, that allows generation of recycled MMA monomer to proceed more efficiently than before.

Compared to virgin materials made from fossil resources, the basic properties of acrylic resin produced by polymerization of recycled MMA monomer obtained by this technology are almost the same, such as transparency and strength, and it is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 60% over the entire product life cycle.

This project is being undertaken as a demonstration project for the construction of a recycling system for plastics and other resources to support a de-carbonized society, subsidized by the Ministry of the Environment (FY2021 and FY2022).

Acrylic splash prevention panels were used in a wide range of applications, including restaurants, as a countermeasure against new coronavirus infection, due to their high transparency and excellent processability. However, following the change of new coronavirus infection to a category 5 infectious disease in Japan on 8 May 2023, businesses and local authorities faced new issues such as the disposal of used splash prevention boards and securing storage space. In response to this situation, Sumitomo Chemical and Niihama City, which have an acrylic resin chemical recycling demonstration facility at the Ehime Plant (Niihama City, Ehime Prefecture), decided to launch a regional resource recycling project for acrylic splash prevention panels in order to make effective use of resources together with local residents.

Achievements and goals

In the laboratory scale and chemical recycling demonstration facilities, it has been confirmed that recycled monomer can be obtained at a high recovery rate from used acrylic resin, and that it can be recycled into acrylic resin of the same quality as virgin material.

We will demonstrate feasibility of this technology on a scale that can be implemented in society, and establish a circular system from collection of used acrylic resin to recycling and reprocessing into products, for contributing to the construction of a sustainable society.

By establishing this technology, we will circulate beautiful acrylic resin with outstanding transparency around the world as Meguri® products.

Reference URL

・News release from Sumitomo Chemical：

https://www.sumitomo-chem.co.jp/english/news/detail/20210823e.html

・News release from JSW：

https://www.jsw.co.jp/en/news/news771501263806351277.html

・Press release from Ministry of the Environment, Japan：

http://www.env.go.jp/en/headline/2556.html