Toshiba Plant Construction - Chemical Recycling to Recover Styrene from Styrofoam (Early 2000s)

Toshiba Plant Construction - Chemical Recycling to Recover Styrene from Styrofoam (Early 2000s)
The technology established by Toshiba Plant Engineering & Construction Corporation to recover styrene monomer at high purity from used styrene foam through high-temperature processing emerged in the early 2000s against the backdrop of changes in recycling-oriented society policies and market demands. At that time, although the amount recovered increased due to the expanded operation of the Containers and Packaging Recycling Law, conventional material recycling, which relied on volume reduction and molding, faced major issues of inconsistent quality and application restrictions. In the food tray field, in particular, hygiene and ingredient stability were strictly required, limiting the use of recycled materials. This technology is characterized by the fact that it enables resin recycling with quality close to that of new materials by returning styrene foam to the monomer stage, thereby greatly easing application restrictions. In addition, the high-temperature treatment enables
volume reduction and conversion to raw materials at the same time, thus addressing the problem of transportation costs for bulky styrene foam. Toshiba Plant Engineering & Construction Corporation, an engineering company, has transferred its plant design capabilities, including reaction control and distillation/refining, to the environmental field, thereby raising chemical recycling technology to an equipment technology that can be implemented. This case can be positioned as a leading example of the direction in which environmental response can be established as an industrial process.