LafargeHolcim Spain will participate in a new project "Horizon 2020”. The project will involve research into pyrolysis, which is a promising technology for recycling unsorted heterogeneous plastic waste. This technology consists of the thermal degradation of plastic waste in the absence of oxygen.

The project will be carried out in two stages: first, adapting and testing a full-scale pilot plant at Repsol's Technology Laboratory to optimise the components and process conditions, and later, a pioneering full-scale industrial demonstration plant in the Repsol petrochemical complex, which will operate in a process validation campaign for six months. Final products will result in circular plastic/textiles, and low-carbon footprint solid fuel.

To optimise the carbon footprint of these facilities, the project will design and build a plant that can be powered entirely by renewable electricity.

LafargeHolcim Spain, in coordination with its subsidiary Geocycle Spain, Repsol, Técnicas Reunidas, ETIA, VTT, PREZERO, CIEMAT, Smart Innovation Norway, Arttic, Denmark Technical University, SCGC Chemicals and Universidad Castilla-La Mancha are involved in the project. The project will last five years (2022-27). The total budget is EUR33,258,033 and it will receive EU funding of EUR18,084,895.