The Vinyloop PVC-Recovery Process

The Vinyloop process was developed by Solvay as a response to a challenge from one of its customers, Ferrari Textiles Techniques (France), who produces architectural tarpaulin and canvas in PVC/polyester compound. This is a rather difficult formulation for recycling, since the PVC is mixed with a matrix. At the same time, Ferrari felt it was important that their material would be recyclable. The first Vinyloop installation is now operational. It is a form of mechanical rather than feedstock or chemical recycling, since the PVC matrix is not changed in the process. 

Around 1999, a 25 kg/day (about 1 tonne/year) experimental installation was set up. A 1,000 tpa installation followed, and by now Solvay is expected to have come close to completion of a full-scale plant of 17,000 plant. 

As indicated, this process is defined as mechanical recycling, since the PVC polymer is not broken down into its monomers. Yet, a main difference with classical mechanical recycling is that in the latter the full PVC formulation is kept intact. Here the components that make up the full formulation are separated. This results in the important advantage that the Vinyloop process can deal with rather complicated formulations. According to Solvay the regenerated PVC is comparable in quality to the primary product. 

3 Acceptance Criteria, Resource Needs and Emissions, and Costs 

The input of the process is a separately collected PVC fraction. The quality has to be about similar as for PVC bound for mechanical recycling. The pilot scale tests 

---