Sweeny Refinery certified to process pyrolysis oil from waste plastics

Phillips 66 has received International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) PLUS certification for its Sweeny Refinery in Texas to process oil made from waste plastics into feedstocks for new plastics.

“Phillips 66 is committed to keeping plastics out of the environment and driving toward a more circular economy where plastics packaging is reused, recycled or recovered,” said Zhanna Golodryga, Executive Vice President of Emerging Energy and Sustainability at Phillips 66. “The ISCC PLUS certification highlights the company’s resolve to create sustainable streams for waste materials and to support the growth of advanced recycling in plastics.”

The ISCC PLUS certification verifies the refinery meets the standards to process pyrolysis oil made from hard-to-recycle waste plastics into circular ethane, circular propane, circular propylene and other sustainable feedstocks and petrochemical building blocks. The products will be used to support polymer producers — including Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC, Phillips 66’s 50-50 joint venture — that are advancing a circular economy for plastics.

Pyrolysis oil is a substance, with properties similar to crude oil, that is generated through pyrolysis, where heat is used to break waste materials into their chemical components. It can be generated from a range of waste materials, including plastic, tires and biomass, that is subsequently refined to upgradable starting materials. The pyrolysis oil processed by Phillips 66 will be provided by third parties.

ISCC is a globally applicable and industry recognized sustainability certification system that covers sustainable feedstocks, including circular feedstocks produced from plastic waste. Its ISCC PLUS certificate covers bio-based and recycled, or circular, raw materials.

Sweeny Refinery, which is located in Old Ocean, Texas, on the Gulf Coast, is the second Phillips 66 refinery to achieve an ISCC PLUS certification and the first for the processing of waste plastic pyrolysis oil into circular feedstocks. Its Humber Refinery in the U.K. is ISCC PLUS certified to process used cooking oil, food waste and other circular feedstocks.