Dubal Holding teams up with Quantafuel and BASF on plastic recycling plant

Dubal Holding, Quantafuel and BASF will build a plant that will turn non-recyclable plastics into valuable products. Photo: Dubal Holding

Dubal Holding, the investment arm of the Dubai government in the commodities and mining, power and energy, and industrial sectors, has entered into a partnership with Norway’s recycling company Quantafuel and global chemical company BASF to develop a plastic recycling plant in Dubai.

The three companies will carry out a front-end engineering design (Feed) this year on the plant, which will have a capacity of 80,000 tonnes a year, the companies said on Thursday.

A final investment decision on the project is expected in early 2023.

The project “will be a significant step towards a circular economy, converting low-quality, non-recyclable plastics into valuable products”, and will help Dubai to achieve its objective of zero waste going to landfill by 2030, the companies said in a statement.

The partners have agreed to “share the cost for the development of the plant”, based on lessons learnt from Quantafuel’s first full-scale commercial plant in Skive, Denmark.

Italian engineering and construction company Saipem has been chosen as the Feed service provider for the project.

The agreement “is an important step towards a co-operation that will foster the advancement of sustainable technology and help attain [a] circular economy in the UAE,” said Ahmad bin Fahad, chief executive of Dubal Holding, which is part of the Investment Corporation of Dubai.

Dubai, the commercial and tourism centre of the Middle East, is taking various measures to protect the environment. It introduced a new 25-fil charge for all single-use plastic bags last month to reduce waste in the emirate.

UAE is also taking up other environment-friendly projects. Earlier this year, Sharjah started the region’s first waste-to-energy plant, which will be able to divert up to 300,000 tonnes of waste away from landfill each year.

The plant was set up by Emirates Waste to Energy, a venture between Sharjah environmental management company Beeah and Abu Dhabi renewable energy company Masdar.

Abu Dhabi also plans to develop a waste-to-energy independent power project in Al Dhafra.

Emirates Water and Electricity Company and the Abu Dhabi Waste Management Centre, better known as Tadweer, issued a request for proposals for the new project last month.

The initiatives come at a time when the UAE has announced plans to become carbon neutral by 2050. It is investing Dh600 billion ($163bn) in clean and renewable energy projects in the next three decades.