Elkem scales silicone upcycling

Silicones maker Elkem has announced that technical implementation of its chemical recycling project for silicone waste at its facility at Saint-Fons near Lyon is now being carried out at pilot scale. This uses a patented depolymerisation featuring process low process temperatures, lower carbon emissions, high conversion rates and chemical selectivity to recover raw materials from waste for reuse in making new silicones.  

“The pilot unit will provide vital scale-up information for safe and energy-efficient recycling of silicones at the industrial scale, and supply Elkem’s target customers with representative quantities of silicone with recycled content,” Elkem said. T

he Resourcing Silicones Polymers (REPOS) project, as it is known, project began in 2021. It was developed in partnership with CP2M and IMP academic labs, and the SMEs Activation and Processium. Funding came from the France 2030 national innovation and industry investment programme and the EU’s NextGenerationEU fund.  

Subsequently, Elkem securedEU funding for its Elkem Sicalo (Silicon production with carbon looping) project at its site in Kristiansand, Norway. Sicalo aims to capture the carbon emitted from the furnace and reuse it as a reductant in the silicon production process. A pilot plant is now being completed.