Feedstock recycling situation in Japan and its future view
T. Yoshioka*
Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Tohoku University, 6-6-07 Aoba, Aramaki-aza, Aoba-ku, Sendai, 980-8579,
Japane-mail: yoshioka@env.che.tohoku.ac.jp; phone & fax: +81-22-795-7211

Abstract
The situation of feedstock recycling in Japan is changing dramatically. New possibilities in mechanical recycling make it
difficult for chemical methods to obtain waste plastic materials from official sources. Acknowlegding this fact, mainly
liquefaction plants had to shut down because of the shortage of input material. The largest converter of waste plastic is
still the steel industry: both coking processes and the direct feed into blast furnaces is used. Hydrogen derived from thegasification of plastic is used for ammonia synthesis. PET is depolymerized by several processes aiming for theproduction of new PET for bottles and fibers.

Keywords:
fuels and lubricants by liquefaction.

1. Introduction

2. Steel Industries
Large scaled feedstock recycling facilities
related with the C&P recycling Law (theThe Japanese steel industry is the largest
Containers and Packaging Recycling Law) inconsumer for waste plastic. Nippon SteelJapan. The total number is 16 facilities, andCorporation used in 2012 about 180,000 tons
their capacity reaches 500 Kt/y. Japan is oneof waste plastic in their coke ovens. Aboutof the most innovative nations related to1 wt% plastic waste can be added to coalrecycling technologies. Most waste streams
during coking without a reduction in the cokeare collected, separated, and utilized.
strength. At about 1000 °C gas (36 wt%), liquid
Mechanical recycling, chemical recycling,(36 wt%), and coke (18 wt%) are obtained asenergetic conversion complement one anotherproducts [2]. Gases are used at the spot forand play an important part in a balanced
electricity production. Tar and light oil are usedconcept of plastic recycling. Waste is divided
16 Facilities in
between interested parties
Sapporo Plastic Recycling
Nihon Steel (Muroran)
2012:
Liquefaction: 12,000t
Coke Oven: 20,000t
using a bidding system in
Monomer 2
which mechanical recycling is
Blast furnace 3
Mogami kiko (Shinjo)
grantedpriority
beforeCoke oven 7
Liquefaction: 1,000t
JFE Steel (Chiba)
Gasification 5chemicalrecyclingandGasification: 20,000t
Liquefaction 1
RekiseiOils(Niigata)energetic conversion. In the
Liquefaction:6,000t
Nippon Steel (Kimitsu)(Total 500 Kt/y)last years, the demand for
Coke Oven: 50,000t
plastics treated by mechanicalOrix environmental resources
JFE Steel (Kawasaki)
Gasification : 30,000t (Yorii)
recyclingincreased
40,000t/30,000t
Blast furnace/Coke Oven
drastically. As a result, several
JFE Steel (Fukuyama)chemical recycling facilities
Showa Denko（Kawasaki)
Blast furnace/Coke Oven : 40,000t
Gasification: 64,000t
shut down caused by theKyoei cycle（Onoda)
PET Reverse (Kawasaki)
shortage of waste materials.
Gasification: 25,000t
Monomer B to B: 27,500t
Based on the Containers andNihon Steel (Yahata)
Nihon
Steel (Nagoya)
Coke Oven: 20,000t
Packaging Law, there are
Coke Oven: 50,000t
today 16 large scale feedstock
Nihon Steel (Oita)
Kobe Steel (Kakogawa)Cokes Oven: 25,000t
recycling facilities with a total
Blast furnace: 10,000t
Ebara-Ube（Ube)capacity of about 500 ktons
Mizushima ecoworks
Gasification: 30,000t Teijin Fiber (Matsuyama)
per year spread over the(Mizushama)Monomer B to F: 62,000t
Gasification : 51,000t
whole country (Figure 1). Mostof the plastic waste is used incoke ovens, blast furnaces, Figure 1. Feedstock recycling facilities with a capacity of more than 500 tons
gasification plants [1]. Only a per year in Japan. Facilities in given in italic characters were shut down
small fraction is converted into between 2007 and 2012 [Provided by the Plastic Waste Management
Institute].

7th International Symposium on Feedstock Recycling of Polymeric Materials (7th ISFR 2013)
New Delhi, India, 23-26 October 2013

as feedstocks for petrochemical processes
after desulfurization [3].
JEF Steel Corporation utilized about 24,000
tons of waste plastic in their blast fumaces in2012. By using the raceway, plastic waste is
directly fed into the bottom of the blast furnaceand burnt together with coal and gas in thepresence of oxygen. The slow combustion ofplastic makes the modification of the raceway
necessary. The high content of SiO2 and Al2O3
in the plastic waste causes the formation ofhigh melting slag which has to be overcome
with the addition of CaCO3 [4].

3. Gasfication
The Ebara-Ube-Process (EUP) is the mostimportant gasification process in Japan [5]. A
first plant was established outsider of Ube city
in 2000 and reached after several extensions acapacity of 30,000 tons per year. The processrelies on two in line gasifiers. The first one isused for the slow pyrolysis of the waste
between 600 and 800 °C. Pyrolysis gases are
gasified in the second stage at temperatures
up to 1500 °C and then rapidly cooled downusing ammonia water for the removal ofchlorine and the preventions of dioxin
formation. Hydrogen derived from thesynthesis gas is used for the synthesis ofammonia. CO2 is used as liquefied CO2 in softdrinks and as dry ice. Showa Denko
Corperation uses the same technology since2003. The KBR process became fully
operational with a capacity of about 60,000
tons in 2012.

4. Liquefaction
At this time, only one liquefaction plant witha capacity of 1250 tons in 2010 is in operation.
Between 2002 and 2009 about 4000 to 7000
tons of waste plastic were converted into fueleach year. The largest liquefaction plant with acapacity of 14,000 tons per year shut down inSapporo in 2011 [6]. The Sapporo Waste
Liquefaction Plant (SPR) was able to process
chlorine
containingplastics.
Afteradechlorination step, the plastic melt was slowly
pyrolyzed between 400 and 450 °C. Theproduct oil was destilled and three fractions at
120 °C, 200 °C and 280 °C were obtained.
Low boiling products (pyrolysis gas) were used
as fuel for the operation of the plant. The solid
residue and the different oil fractions were soldand used as fuels. It was claimed that in 2006
about 96% of the material processed in theplant was recycled and reused.

5. Monomer Recycling
Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) frombottles is collected separately allowing theprocessing of high quality waste PET byvarious solvolytic methods. Teijin developedone
methanolysis
processviabis(hydroyethyl)terephthalate for the synthesisof fibers (bottle-to-fiber) and a hydrolysis
process via dimethylterephthalate for thesynthesis of bottles (bottle-to-bottle) [7].
Glycolysis is used for the AIES “bottle-tobottle” process in the PET Reverse Co. Ltd.
Waste bottle PET is cleaned and glycolyzed.
The resulting BHET is purified by moleculardistillation and directly polycondensed. In thisway, 27,500 tons per year (2003) of bottle PET
is obtained. This company, however, has beenclosed in 2008 [8]. At the present, this process
was taken over by the PET Refinery Techology
Co.Ldt of the Toyo Seikan Groupe at a
capacity of 20,000 tons.

References[1] Kamo T (2011) Overview of the waste
plastic recycling system in Japan and futuretasks. In: Aguado J (eds) 6th International
Symposium on Feedstock Recycling ofPolymeric Materials (ISFR). Toledo, Spain, pp
15-18[2] Fukuda K, Kato K, Uematsu H (2007)
Chemical Recycling of Waste Plastics Using
Coke Ovens :Current
Status andCountermeasures. Journal of the Japan
Institute of Energy 86:866-870[3] Fukuda K, Kuwatori H, Kato K (2010)
Waste plastics recycling by the coke-oven fromwaste plastics to chemical raw materials.
Nihon Enerugi Gakkaishi/Journal of the Japan
Institute of Energy 89:522-527[4] Ariyama T (2010) Transition of waste
plastics utilization in blast furnace and future
aspect. Nihon Enerugi Gakkaishi/Journal of theJapan Institute of Energy 89:528-536[5] Ooi N, Inoue M (2010) Gasification
technology of waste plastic. Nihon Enerugi
Gakkaishi/Journal of the Japan Institute ofEnergy 89:516-521[6] Grause G, Buekens A, Sakata Y, Okuwaki
A, Yoshioka T (2011) Feedstock recycling ofwaste polymeric material. J Mater Cycles
Waste Manage 13:265-282[7] Nakatani J (2010) A decade ofdevelopment of pet bottle recycling. Nihon
Enerugi Gakkaishi/Journal of the Japan
Institute of Energy 89:537-544[8] Yoshioka T (2007) The Trend of Research
Development for Feedstock Recycling ofPlastics. Journal of the Japan Institute ofEnergy 86:848-853

7th International Symposium on Feedstock Recycling of Polymeric Materials (7th ISFR 2013)
New Delhi, India, 23-26 October 2013