Pan Era Group strengthens circular economy capabilities with chemical recycling expansion

Pan Era Group, one of Southeast Asia’s leading polyolefin recycling companies, today announced the successful installation and commissioning of its chemical recycling commercial demonstration facility in Serang, Banten. With a capacity of 2,000 tonnes of plastic pyrolysis oil (PPO) produced annually, the facility marks a new milestone in the company’s efforts to expand plastic recycling capabilities and support the early development of chemical recycling in Indonesia.

The facility uses pyrolysis technology to convert suitable plastic waste into PPO, which can serve as a feedstock for petrochemical applications, subject to meeting the relevant technical specifications and quality requirements. The process has been custom designed by Pan Era Group through its research and development efforts, which began in 2022. During this period, the company has also developed a library of oil characteristics derived from diff erent plastic waste feedstocks, providing a foundation for understanding feedstock variability and evaluating the potential of different waste streams for chemical recycling.

The commercial demonstration is intended to establish three key foundations for the development of chemical recycling in Indonesia: confirming the availability of suitable local plastic waste feedstock, demonstrating that the resulting oil can meet petrochemical industry specifications, as well as assessing the process’s economic viability.

Plastic pyrolysis oil (PPO) produced at Pan Era Group’s chemical recycling demonstration facility in Banten, Indonesia.

This initiative builds on Pan Era Group’s longstanding experience in mechanical recycling and its involvement in Indonesia’s local plastic waste collection ecosystem. For decades, the company has worked with waste pickers, junkshops, aggregators, and other supply chain partners to recover locally collected plastic waste. This experience has established a strong foundation for Pan Era Group to explore complementary recycling technologies, leveraging its existing local collection and recovery network to expand the range of plastic waste that can be recycled.

By complementing mechanical recycling with chemical recycling, Pan Era Group aims to broaden the range of plastic waste that can be recycled and expand the potential markets for recovered materials. While mechanical recycling remains essential for recovering plastic materials, pyrolysis offers an additional route for processing selected waste streams that are diff icult to recycle mechanically. Together, these technologies can help unlock greater value from Indonesia’s plastic waste resources.

The new facility represents Pan Era Group’s continued investment in technology and innovation to strengthen Indonesia’s recycling ecosystem. By developing practical experience in chemical recycling using locally sourced feedstock, the company aims to contribute to the advancement of this emerging technology and help lay the groundwork for its potential future development in Indonesia.

Recognizing that the development of chemical recycling requires collaboration across the value chain, Pan Era Group is actively seeking partners from across the plastics and petrochemical industries, as well as other relevant stakeholders, to help advance the technology and build a viable chemical recycling ecosystem in Indonesia.  

For more information, visit: https://paneragroup.com/