Neste to support Alterra Energy’s expansion with stake purchase

Finland’s Neste has acquired a minority stake in Alterra Energy. Neste’s equity investment supports Alterra Energy’s expansion. The collaboration between the companies will include joint technology development and global technology licensing, enabling the two companies to collaborate in commercializing Alterra’s proprietary thermochemical liquefaction technology in Europe. 

Alterra’s technology enables a broad range of plastic waste streams from diverse post-consumer sources to be liquefied into a material similar to crude oil. Such material can be flexibly processed and upgraded by companies like Neste into high-quality feedstock for polymers and chemicals production.

The companies are working together towards a global rollout of Alterra’s liquefaction technology with a strong initial focus on Europe, a leading market in the global transition towards making plastics value chains fully circular. With this, the companies aim to accelerate the adoption of chemical recycling and develop capacity to turn hard-to-recycle plastic waste into high-quality, high-performance polymers and chemicals. The collaboration of the companies supports Alterra Energy’s target of commencing the construction of a state-of-the-art liquefaction site in Europe in 2021.

Alterra’s existing industrial-scale waste plastics liquefaction plant in Akron, Ohio, U.S.A., produces commercial volumes that can already be refined and upgraded into high-quality feedstock for plastics and chemicals. This, together with Neste’s refining capability, enables sustainability-oriented brands globally to start introducing recycled content into their products and offerings.

“Collaboration with Alterra Energy strengthens Neste’s ecosystem of partnerships that are aimed at accelerating the transition to a circular plastics economy. It demonstrates our commitment to continue developing the chemical recycling industry by supporting some of the leading companies in commercializing promising technologies. This partnership also supports Neste’s aim of building new business growth based on chemical recycling, while marking another significant step towards our target of processing more than one million tons of plastic waste from 2030 onwards,” says Mercedes Alonso, executive vice president, Renewable Polymers and Chemicals, Neste. 

“The Neste-Alterra partnership will unlock the full potential of the circular economy, bringing our technology to more partners around the world, creating a cleaner planet,” said Alterra’s CEO Frederic Schmuck. “Neste is a world leader in renewable and circular solutions and its endorsement of Alterra’s proprietary process is both extremely rewarding and validating.”

About Neste

Neste (NESTE, Nasdaq Helsinki) refines waste, residues and innovative raw materials into renewable fuels and sustainable feedstock for plastics and other materials. Neste is the world’s leading producer of renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel, developing chemical recycling to combat the plastic waste challenge. Its aim is to help customers reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 million tons annually by 2030.

About Alterra Energy

Based in Akron, Ohio, U.S.A., Alterra Energy‘s thermochemical liquefaction process technology transforms plastic waste into petrochemical products which can be further refined into fuels, waxes, and new plastic production.