NextChem starts up an upcycling plant in Abu Dhabi

On the occasion of the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (Adipec, Abu Dhabi 31 October-3 November), Maire Tecnimont’s subsidiary NextChem, through the associate company GCB Polymers, inaugurates a new re-processing and upcycling plant for polymers today in the Kezad Industrial Zone, in the United Arab Emirates capital city Abu Dhabi. This new plant processes a very wide range of polymer products, from near to prime to the lower end of plant scraps, post-industrial and post-consumer waste, and also recycled polymers.

The plant is capable of both improving and upgrading lower-quality polymers (such off-spec products, plant scraps) and upcycling plastic waste into higher-value, qualified products fit for specific industrial applications, thus representing an effective contribution to the development of a circular economy.

Located between Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the largest industrial and free trade zone in the Middle East, the plant was built by GCB Polymers, a joint venture between NextChem, P2 Polimeri and Polyme General Trading. GCB Polymers is a pioneer investor at the Kezad Polymer Park, a plastics value chain ecosystem located close to the heart of a large industrial zone, in support of UAE Circular Economy Policy, in country value and contributing to a new circular economy approach in the UAE.

The plant will use the nearby deep-water Khalifa Port on a daily basis to import and export products and will reach the production of as much as 180,000 tons per year of polymers in the next few years. These polymers can be used to make products for the home, garden furniture, pipes, packaging, and many other applications.

“The plant at Kezad is an example of made in Italy know-how, which was developed at home and now has been exported to help countries like the UAE develop circular economy on an industrial scale”, said Maire Tecnimont Chairman Fabrizio Di Amato at the inauguration of the plant. “By converting lower quality polymers into higher value products, and at the same time upcycling plastic waste, we are industrializing an innovative and effective way to decisively put circularity into the picture in the UAE. We are glad to keep on supporting the Country in the realization of its vision in the energy transition with more energy produced and less emissions”.