The innovation potential of our process is achieved thanks to the complementarity of its two key steps: accelerated depolymerization and highly effective downstream purification. We entered cPET project by having reached TRL6-7 thanks to previous EU-funded projects (i.e., SYMBIOPTIMA and DEMETO) on both microwave-accelerated depolymerization and purification. Thanks to these two key milestones, we have been able to demonstrate the purification of different depolymerized feedstocks in an industrially relevant environment: deeply coloured PET, PET and Nylon, PET and Lycra, PET and Rayon/Viscosa, PET and cotton, among others.

cPET activities have tackled mostly the engineering bottlenecks related to both the core reactive unit (our microwave machine) and the purification process for the monomers, increasing greatly their design, also thanks to the support of highly experienced professionals that GR3N has involved in the project along these two years.

With cPET we have achieved the TRL 8 for both lines of development, with the reactive unit prototype inside GR3N’s demonstration plant playing the role of last “testing equipment” before going into series production, and revision-1 of the Process Design Package delivered to support the basic engineering of the first industrial plant.