ST. PAUL, MINN. (Aug. 15, 4:30 p.m. ET) – Dyneon GmbH is building a pilot plant in Burgkirchen, Germany, to recycle polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) scrap.

The plant, which will be located at the firm’s integrated production site, will have capacity to recycle 500 metric tons of PTFE waste annually.

According to the company, every year 20,000 metric tons of waste is created globally during the processing of PTFE. This waste material is currently either incinerated or landfilled.

In the new process, PTFE scrap will be heated in a reactor, split into its raw gaseous components, cleaned and fed back into the production of new PTFE.

When running at capacity, the process will save 10,000 metric tons of waste hydrochloric-acid and 7,500 megawatt hours of energy annually. It also will save 7,500 tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere annually, according to the company.

The University of Bayreuth supported the development of the process.

The project was one of 200 concepts featured at the “Week of the Environment” exhibit, held June 5-6 in Berlin. Dyneon is a unit of St. Paul-based 3M.