Light weight plastic materials like polyolefins are majorly used for packing of several items. These packaging materials generate significant amount of plastic waste in Indian cities. These plastic waste are spread across the country. Degradation of plastic waste takes several hundred years. Hence it is important to develop a technology related to polyolefin depolymerization. Hence, CSIR- The innovation engine of India, has proposed and taken up a Mission Mode program on Plastic Depolymerization and Upcycling (DEPOLUP). This Mission Mode project aims to intervene at four places to transform the current linear model of plastic utilization and waste generation, to a circular model with plastic waste upcycled to value-added products. This Mission Mode project aims to depolymerize PE and PP to fuel and value added chemicals/monomers.
The major Work Packages (WP) under this Mission Mode project are:

• WP1- Demonstration of collection and segregation in the supply-chain.
  • Deployment of plastic segregation technologies to enable the availability of majorly polyolefin waste as input to pyrolysis
  • Establishing reverse supply-chain in association with industries and NGO.
• WP2- Plastic (mainly polyolefin) pyrolysis
  • Production of diesel with >80% throughput and 63% conversion using segregated plastic waste comprising majorly of polyolefins in CSIR-IIP 1 TPD pilot plant
  • The selectivity towards diesel formation >70% on lab scale with catalyst life of >100 h
  • Targeting consistent quality of pyrolysis oil meeting standard specifications
  • Reduce heat/energy load to make the process less energy intensive
• WP3- Downstream processing of pyrolysis oil and value addition
  • Enhancing the current liquid fraction of pyrolysis plants to diesel grade fuel (~70% by mass)
  • Hydrogenation/fractionation to improve the quality and yield
  • Targeting consistent quality of pyrolysis oil meeting standard specifications
  • Comparing and establishing specifications such as BS-standards
• WP4 Plastic upcycling to value-added products
  • Plastic waste to olefins through catalytic upcycling
  • Waste polyolefins to waxes
  • Plastic waste to surfactants
  • Alternative chemical interventions for ease of depolymerization