For an agricultural holding, the issue of waste processing rarely comes down to choosing an “ecological” installation. It is necessary to compare the composition of the flow, logistics, energy, product sales and licensing risks. The terms waste depolymerization and pyrolysis are often confused, although they answer different technological questions. This is important when there is film, packaging, tires, contaminated packaging or biomass in the same circuit.
Depolymerization is the breaking of polymer chains to return the material to monomers or other well-defined chemical fractions. It works best where the feedstock is relatively homogeneous and the polymer chemistry allows for selective return to the building blocks.
Pyrolysis is a thermal decomposition in the absence of oxygen; for mixed polyolefins, it more often produces a broad mixture of gases, liquid hydrocarbons, and a solid residue, rather than a single “pure” product.
The boundary between concepts is not always rigid: selective thermal depolymerization of PMMA, for example, uses pyrolysis as a physical mode. Therefore, it is more correct to ask not “what is the name of the technology”, but what polymers and impurities are at the input, what product is needed at the output and what specifications it must meet.
| Criterion | Depolymerization | Pyrolysis |
|---|---|---|
| Target result | Monomer or controlled chemical fraction | A mixture of gas, oil and solid residue |
| Entry requirements | Typically higher: uniformity and contamination control | Can accept more complex mixed flows, but not without limits |
| Key risk | Loss of selectivity and expensive pre-selection | Product instability, cleaning and waste management |
| Economic logic | A premium is possible for a product that replaces primary raw materials | Depends on faction output, energy cost, and offtake contract |
| What to check in the pilot | Product purity, yield, purification losses | Mass and energy balance, oil, gas and residue quality |
ERVO describes its process as a continuous thermocatalytic processing of pre-prepared feedstock with neutralizers to aid fractionation at lower temperatures. The company claims to process plastic, tires, and biomass and purify the resulting RecOil. This is useful input for technical dialogue, but it is a technology provider’s statement, not an independent result for a specific agroholding.
Before making an investment decision, it is worth requesting not a presentation, but a test report of your specific stream: composition, moisture, proportion of inert impurities, mass balance, energy consumption, product analysis, cleaning requirements and confirmed offtake. Without this, it is incorrect to compare ERVO and alternatives based only on the name “depolymerization”.
EROEI (Energy Return on Energy Invested) is the ratio of the energy in useful products to the energy spent to obtain them. For waste, it does not by itself answer the question of “is the project profitable”: part of the value is created by the waste management service, not the energy. However, EROEI helps to identify the weak point of the scheme.
For an investor, a more suitable combination of indicators is:
A high calculated EROEI does not compensate for oil that does not meet the buyer’s specifications.
The European project MMAtwo is an example where thermal depolymerization has a clear material logic: for suitable PMMA flows, a mass yield of polymer to monomer of over 90% is reported. After piloting, the technology was implemented at the Trinseo site in Rho, Italy. However, this result cannot be transferred to mixed agricultural film or tires: it concerns a specific polymer and a controlled feedstock. Details of the case and its limitations are described on the European Commission’s CORDIS.
For pyrolysis, scientific evaluations show a high dependence of the outcome on the process configuration and energy supply. The 2025 open LCA study compares different configurations and highlights that switching to renewable energy can improve the environmental profile, but the results vary significantly between settings. This is an argument in favor of on-site measurements rather than a blanket statement about the “greenness” of pyrolysis. See the full Royal Society of Chemistry paper.
Start with the flow passport, not the equipment. Separate the waste by polymer, contamination, seasonality, and collection radius. Then, formulate two or three technological hypotheses and conduct independent testing of a representative batch. For a municipality, the permitting model, emission monitoring, and residue routing are especially important; for an agricultural holding, the stability of its own raw materials, preparation area, and product contract are especially important.
The European Commission’s JRC report on the economic viability of chemical recycling warns that in the EU such routes do not currently reach price parity with virgin plastic. This is not a condemnation of the project, but a reason to base the model on verified costs and markets, rather than on the assumption of an automatic “circular premium”. Source JRC.
Depolymerization can be a strong solution for defined and sufficiently clean streams where monomer recovery is important. Pyrolysis can be more flexible for more complex residues, but requires strict product, energy and environmental controls. The right question for an agroholding is not “what is more modern”, but “what scenario is validated for our raw materials, logistics and product buyer”.
CTA: Prepare a waste stream passport and a technical specification for a pilot test; only then compare commercial offers.
No. Even flexible thermal processes have limitations on composition, moisture, halogens, metals, and impurities. These must be verified against supplier specifications and independent testing.
No. It is one of the energy indicators. It should be read in conjunction with the mass balance, preparation costs, environmental requirements and proven product sales.
In a thermal sense, pyrolysis breaks polymer chains. But in practical communication, “depolymerization” is often referred to as a selective route to monomer, so it is important to specify the target product and feedstock.
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