Dow Chemical Cancels Construction Project of Europe's Largest Chemical Recycling Plant

According to Zhuan Su Shijie, Dow has announced the cancellation of the construction project for what would have been Europe's largest chemical recycling plant. The facility, jointly developed by Dow and technology partner Mura Technology, was originally planned to be built within Dow's Böhlen site in Germany, with an annual capacity of 120,000 tons.

According to S&P Platts, the cancellation of this plan is due to Dow's decision to permanently close the steam cracker in Böhlen by 2027. The recycling plant was originally intended to provide a sustainable naphtha alternative feedstock (i.e., recycled feedstock) for the cracker. With the closure of the cracker, the economic prospects of the recycling plant also seem to have disappeared. The cracker has been shut down since July due to technical faults.

Mura's technology uses supercritical steam to break down hard-to-recycle plastics, including flexible films and multi-layer films, into oils and chemical feedstocks. Dow and Mura initially planned to make a final investment decision in 2023, followed by operational commencement in 2025.

In 2022, Dow and Mura announced the plant plan as part of a broader collaboration between the two parties, aiming to achieve a chemical recycling capacity of 600,000 tons in Europe and the United States by 2030. The Böhlen project was supposed to be the flagship project of this plan and play a key role in Dow's goal to recycle 1 million tons of plastic by 2030.