bp plc (London) has signed a ten-year offtake agreement with Clean Planet Energy, a U.K.-based company that is developing facilities to convert hard-to-recycle waste plastics into circular petrochemical feedstocks and also into ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD). Clean Planet Energy designs and builds facilities – which they refer to as ecoPlants – that are expected to process plastics typically rejected by traditional recycling centers and so would otherwise be sent to landfill or incineration.
Under the new agreement bp will initially receive the output of Clean Planet Energy’s first facility, currently under construction in Teesside in the north-east of England. The Teesside facility is designed to have the capacity to process 20,000 tons per year of waste plastics into naphtha and ULSD. The naphtha can be utilized as feedstock into circular plastics value chains, which is aligned with bp’s aim of unlocking new sources of value through circularity, keeping products and materials in use for longer. Clean Planet Energy will provide bp with the opportunity to expand the relationship by offtaking products from its future plants beyond Teesside.
bp is already leading a series of major hydrogen and carbon capture and storage projects being developed in and around Teesside that will support decarbonisation of the region’s industries.
Clean Planet Energy is currently in the process of developing 12 of its ecoPlants globally. From these facilities alone, the company aims to divert 250,000 tonnes of hard-to-recycle waste plastic annually from landfills and the environment, creating more than 700 green jobs in local communities. Clean Planet Energy plans to announce further ecoPlants in the UK, EU, South-East Asia and the Americas later this year.
Sven Boss-Walker, SVP Refining & Products Trading at bp, said: “This long-term agreement with Clean Planet Energy for the offtake of naphtha will help bp unlock new sources of value through circularity, while helping divert plastic waste away from landfill, incineration and the environment. Clean Planet Energy’s first facility in Teesside should help accelerate this journey.”
Dr. Katerina Garyfalou, Director of Business Development at Clean Planet Energy, said: “We set out to find an international energy company to work with that we felt understood our vision. bp not only put sustainability performance at the heart of their discussions with us from day one, but their global-leading refining and trading businesses means our naphtha product can have an impact in helping to advance a circular economy.”