Teijin, JGC & ITOCHU to establish polyester recycling venture

A joint venture business called RePEaT Co., Ltd. will be established by Teijin Limited, JGC Holdings Corporation, and ITOCHU Corporation to license the technology for the chemical recycling of polyester products.

Dimethyl terephthalate (DMT), a chemical recycling process that breaks down and transforms polyester (PET) before repolymerizing it, will be used in the new joint venture. Notably, the DMT technique eliminates colors and contaminants, enabling the production of recovered PET with the same quality as PET obtained from petroleum.

Teijin has a lot of experience producing polyester goods for sale utilizing DMT technology, including colored PET and colored textile waste.

The fiber and textile sector is working on solutions to problems like CO2 emissions from manufacturing processes and the widespread dumping of discarded clothing in response to the urgent need to combat global warming. These solutions include the construction of ecosystems for resource recycling. Textile waste is being employed as a heat source (thermal recovery) or as a raw material to create new products (material recycling). However, chemical recycling is a ground-breaking technique that converts discarded textile goods into fresh textile raw materials through the use of chemical disintegration.

Following the signing of a preliminary agreement in April 2021, the three businesses investigated business opportunities to license the technology globally. They did this by combining Teijin’s DMT expertise and knowledge with JGC’s general engineering expertise and knowledge of plant construction, as well as ITOCHU’s extensive global textile industry network. The partners have now agreed to move through with creating a business joint venture in light of the anticipated high global demand for their licensed technology.

Technology for recycling that was initially created by Teijin and subsequently jointly streamlined and packaged by JGC and Teijin will be licensed by RePEaT. Customers in Japan and other nations are anticipated to develop chemical-recycling enterprises for the creation of polyester products using the technology.

RePEaT will offer consultancy services and technology licensing to help clients create ecologies that gather spent polyester fiber goods for repurposing as raw materials, ultimately promoting recycling and more sustainable society.