TotalEnergies SE (Paris) has announced the building of a new mechanical recycling unit for plastic waste at its Grandpuits site southeast of Paris. This new investment follows those announced in June 2023 — the doubling of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production and construction of a biomethane production unit — in line with the Company’s ambition to develop low-carbon energy and the circular economy.
The new unit should enter service in 2026 and produce 30,000 tons a year of high value-added compounds containing up to 50% recycled plastic material. In addition to the mechanical recycling unit, a specific center will be established that provides technical assistance to customers and develops new products, in order to provide sufficient support for the commercialization of the new range of hybrid compounds.
One year after investing in a new production line that makes high-performance recycled polypropylene for the automotive sector in its plant at Carling, the Company is now expanding its recycled polymer offering with this new unit at Grandpuits. It will target the high-performance packaging market, in particular for pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.
“This investment is great news for the local area and represents another milestone for the zero-crude platform at Grandpuits. The investment in this plastic recycling unit is entirely consistent with the Company’s ambition to grow the circular economy and will contribute to the objective of reaching 1 million tons of circular polymers by 2030. By developing all these projects at the Grandpuits zero-crude platform, the Company can confirm it will maintain 250 jobs at the site, honoring the commitments that it made in September 2020,” said Bernard Pinatel, President, Refining & Chemicals at TotalEnergies.
Grandpuits is an ambitious project for low-carbon energy and the circular economy:
In September 2020, in line with its aim to get to net zero by 2050, TotalEnergies launched a project to convert this industrial site. The “zero-crude” project, which will cost an estimated total of over €500 million, is based on the development of several future-oriented activities in biomass, renewables and the circular economy:
- SAF production: the biorefinery’s output capacity of 210,000 tons a year by 2025 and 285,000 tons a year by 2027 will allow the Company to keep pace with the gradual rise in EU blending mandates, set at 6% in 2030.
- Biomethane production: the biomethane unit, which will receive feedstock in the form of organic waste from the biorefinery, will prevent the emission of almost 20,000 tons of CO₂ per year. Its annual capacity of 80 gigawatt-hours (GWh) represents the average annual demand of 16,000 people.
- Advanced and mechanical recycling: with two recycling units, one for advanced recycling with capacity to treat 15,000 tons of waste a year, and another a mechanical recycling unit announced today, Grandpuits is establishing itself as a major French recycling site.
- Green electricity generation: Grandpuits is home to the largest solar farm in the Île-de-France region, equipped with a battery energy storage system. Since coming onstream in July 2023, it has been generating 31 GWh of green electricity a year, enough to supply 19,000 people. This power generation required the installation of 46,000 solar panels and adds to the 28 GWh facility built at Gargenville, west of Paris, which was launched in 2022.
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