From old tires to new car parts: Neste, Borealis and Covestro collaborate for automotive circularity
Neste, Borealis and Covestro signed a project agreement to enable the recycling of discarded tires into high-quality plastics for automotive applications. The collaboration aims at driving circularity in plastics value chains and the automotive industry.
Neste, Borealis and Covestro collaborated to contribute to the circularity of plastics value chain in automotive industry.
When no longer fit for use, tires are liquefied by means of chemical recycling. Neste turns the liquefied tires into high-quality raw material for polymers and chemicals manufacturing.
After that, Borealis process the Neste-produced raw material into base chemicals phenol and acetone. Lastly, Covestro use these materials to make polycarbonates of high purity. These can then be used in various automotive applications, from parts of headlamps to radiator grilles.
Infographic of the collaboration among Neste, Borealis and Covestro.
The share of recycled content is attributed via the mass balancing approach all the way to the final products using ISCC Plus certification.
The first products based on the collaboration are already available as each partner has manufactured the first batch of their respective contribution to the project.
Aside from polycarbonates, the project partners may also consider polyurethanes as a possible end product, which can also be applied in automotive interior parts.
The companies emphasize that the potential to scale-up these types of developments should be considered when setting ambitious targets for future EU regulations, such as the End of Life Vehicles Regulation.
