Westlake Vinnolit launches bio

Cologne, Germany-based Westlake Vinnolit GmbH & Co. KG, a subsidiary of Houston-based Westlake Corp., has launched a bio-attributed PVC produced with renewable electricity and renewable ethylene from recycled, used cooking oil.

Westlake Vinnolit's new GreenVin bio-attributed PVC has a reduced carbon footprint of about 90 percent, compared with conventionally produced Vinnolit PVC, Thomas Brock, business unit director of vinyls, innovation and technology, told Plastics News.

Because the company uses a second-generation renewable biomass — used cooking oil — its feedstock isn't in competition with agriculture for food, "which is very often the case when you talk about renewable feedstock," Brock said.

The cooking oil is "recovered from restaurants and companies that do fried and frozen foods," from Austria-based OMV Group and other partners, he said. The oil is then recycled into an ISCC Plus-certified renewable ethylene.

"We think there's sufficient material right now," Brock said. "And today people tend to burn it or use it as an energy resource. But together, with our supplier, we think that we can make better use of it feeding it into a circular economy."

The 100 percent fossil fuel-free PVC is made of ethylene and salt, he added.

Earlier this year, Westlake Vinnolit released a low-carbon alternative PVC, its first product under the GreenVin brand, of which the company has already sold several thousands of tons. The original GreenVin PVC has reduced carbon emissions of about 25 percent, Brock said, "at a little price premium compared to the conventional PVC."

"Many of our customers say they want to be serious with going into sustainability," he said. "We really believe in it, which is why we launched two lines.

"I can't see into the future," Brock said, "but perhaps, 10, 15 years into the future, [conventional PVC] will be phased out and fully replaced."

K 2022 gave Westlake Chemical the opportunity to showcase all of its legal entities at one booth, he added.

"Our mother company set goals to reduce the carbon footprint of the company by at least 20 percent by 2030," Brock said. "We're looking at all the product lines and establishing an organization [that] it's only task is to improve [sustainability]," including energy replacement, increasing energy efficiency and product recovery and recycling.

"Climate protection is important to us, and we are constantly looking for new ways to make our product portfolio and production processes more sustainable," Karl-Martin Schellerer, Westlake Vinnolit managing director, said in an Oct. 17 news release. "Renewable electricity and renewable raw materials, such as biomass, play a key role in this."

"Our customers now have the entire Westlake Vinnolit PVC portfolio available as both GreenVin and GreenVin bio-attributed, with unchanged product quality and processing properties," Brock said in the release. "We are actively helping our customers achieve their sustainability goals. In doing so, we also support the goals of VinylPlus, the European PVC industry's voluntary commitment to sustainable development."

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