SÜDPACK has acquired a majority stake in CARBOLIQ GmbH, further demonstrating the company’s commitment to a closed-loop system for plastics and to chemical recycling as a complementary recycling technology. With the acquisition, the film manufacturer is substantiating its leading position in terms of a circular economy in the industry for flexible packaging.

At present, SÜDPACK is the only manufacturer of flexible films for the food industry with direct access to capacities for chemical recycling.

CARBOLIQ is an advanced thermochemical process, also known as direct oiling. What primarily differentiates the CARBOLIQ process from other pyrolysis technologies is its flexibility regarding infeed materials, which do not necessarily have to be based on polyolefin. Thanks to its high feedstock tolerance, CARBOLIQ is also suitable for converting not only contaminated, mixed, or other plastics into oil, but also flexible packaging and highly complex multilayer films.

Another advantage is that the CARBOLIQ process requires a lower temperature of less than 400 °C. The low process temperature, the single-stage approach of the process, and the use of friction to introduce energy to the material make it possible to convert material with relatively low energy consumption.

Initial pilot projects with customers have already been successfully realized or are now in the implementation phase.

The CARBOLIQ plant concept is currently based on high-caloric fractions and fully continuous operation, designed to provide an annual output of approximately 10,000 tons. The secondary raw material that is distributed under the name of CLR, which stands for Circular Liquid Resource, is similar in many of its main properties to fossil oil and the products obtained from it , making it a fully-fledged substitute for fossil resources.