Resource Denmark is the first company in a green tech area - big scale PtX will join.
The building site is less than 500 meters from the motorway, and the railway line is next door. It is no coincidence that this is where Resource Denmark is building its plastic sorting plant.
- We knew we needed access to the motorway, the railway and, most importantly, access to a port. Here in Esbjerg we have a large port with a RO/RO terminal that is used to incinerate millions of tons of waste every year, explains Erik Rynning, chairman of the board of directors of Resource Denmark and project director of Quantafuel.
The location in Esbjerg's Veldbæk district is no coincidence, where the green technology will be located side by side with a planned large-scale PtX plant.
- H2 Energy's site is just over there, Erik Rynning points out and adds:
- We have environmental approval class 7. I have actually seen a lot of Denmark, because we have looked at 45 other possible locations.
But where one might think that sorting plastic waste could be a dirty affair, the standard is completely different.
- There must be a beautiful flower meadow here, and we must be climate neutral. We do things properly, explains Erik Rynning, while pointing to the frozen and snow-covered building site.
Partnership with high ethical standards
But it all actually started in a completely different place for Norwegian Erik Rynning, when as project director for Quantafuel he first looked for a partner to build a high-tech waste sorting plant. The vision was clear from the beginning.
- We wanted to create a green waste sorting system with transparency and full traceability. We wanted to do things differently than is usually done within waste sorting, Erik Rynning states.
It would prove difficult to find a well-established partner within the plastics industry.
- Most people only wanted to hear if they could make money from it. So it just ended up being a conversation, and I was incredibly disappointed about that, says Erik Rynning, who was ultimately successful.
- I came into contact with the French group Eurazeo. Here we could feel that the mindset and approach suited us, says Erik Rynning.
That is why today the Norwegian-French duo with a shared set of values is behind Resource Denmark. The original plan was actually to build somewhere else in Europe, for example in the Amsterdam area, but it ended up in Denmark instead.
EU recycling requirements
The reason why it is precisely now that the partners are starting up the plastic sorting plant is no coincidence.
- So far, the plastic waste has been used in district heating incineration, and it works really well. Plastic is oil in a solid form. But an year and a half to two years ago, an EU recycling requirement came into effect. That's why we knew, now we have to start the plastic sorting plant, then we'll do the pyrolysis afterwards, says Erik Rynning.
Plastic sorting is by no means a simple task.
- What we do is the chemical use of plastic. Here, you can use plastic that would otherwise have been burned. We're talking about a difficult and complex process. Plastic is not just plastic, so we need to have 100 percent control over what kind of plastic comes into the plant, he explains.
The sorting plant comes from Germany.
- Eggersmann Recycling Technology is supplying the plant. We will positively sort the plastic at two stations with infrared light until we have the purity we want. It is advanced technology, but it is not new tech, explains Erik Rynning.
Although it is not a new technology, the plant will achieve results that are better than normal.
Among the best plants in the EU
- We will achieve a recycling rate of 50 percent, and that will be at the very top in Europe. Our plant will also be one of the newest in the EU, explains the project director.
The plant will have a recycling capacity of 160,000 tons per year, and it will receive plastic waste within the areas of household and industrial waste as well as service waste.
Some of the recycled plastic will be particularly clean.
- 15 percent of what we will recycle will be chemically recycled. Plastic up to food grade quality will be made from it, says Erik Rynning.
The sorting will take place in two different ways.
- We play both fields by doing both mechanical and chemical sorting, says Rynning.
Will make money in 2024
The plant will open on January 1, 2024, and one thing is already certain.
- I'm really proud of it. We will have around 50 employees during 2024, and we will make money already in the first year, it says.
When the pyrolysis plant will follow the sorting plant is not planned yet.
- We already have an option on a building plot right over here, says Erik Rynning, who already today already divides his working weeks between Denmark and Norway.
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