An ECI Conference Series
September 13 – 17, 2026
Porto, Portugal
About This Conference
The conference will be a forum for discussion of the advances in thermochemical technologies for chemical recycling of plastic and plastic waste (e.g., pyrolysis, gasification, hydrogenolysis, hydrothermal/solvent-based depolymerization). Different types of plastic waste are included (e.g., packaging, textile, construction, electronics, automotive, etc.). The refining and/or upgrading of resulting product intermediates using standalone facilities or co-processed taking advantage of existing infrastructure will be also an important topic for this conference.
Final products are derived after proper fractionation, isolation, purification and/or upgrading, and contributions addressing the processing to marketable materials, chemicals and fuels are especially invited. This discussion will include techno-economic analyses and life cycle assessments.
The conference will also offer a platform to those who are able to report on commercially successful processes.
ChemRec II will be the second conference of this series, which exclusively focuses in thermochemical processing of plastic waste, and thus it is an important event to foster friendly and deep face-to-face discussions that could further catalyze the growth of this industry.
Conference Organization
Co-Chairs
Sascha Kersten
University of Twente
The Netherlands
M. Pilar Ruiz
Maastricht University
The Netherlands
Erik Heeres
University of Groningen
The Netherlands
Proposed Sessions
- Characterization and pretreatment of plastic waste feedstocks (e.g., for contaminants removal).
- Fundamentals of pyrolysis, liquefaction, gasification and catalytic depolymerization technologies (reaction mechanisms, reaction kinetics, product selectivity, effects of heat and mass transfer limitations, catalysis).
- Reactor development and modelling (testing and modelling of lab-scale units)
- Process development and integration (testing of fully continuous laboratory setups and pilot installations providing a full mass balance closure, including pre-treatment, reaction and product separation).
- Product characterization, separation and upgrading (refers to chemical characterization, isolation, purification and post treatment / upgrading of the products from pyrolysis or liquefaction to e.g., remove contaminants/impurities.
- Successful demonstration, scale-up and commercialization
Conference Format
The format of the conference will be the “retreat-style Banff-format”. There will be no parallel sessions so as to allow all participants to be exposed and contribute to all presentations. Apart from the four plenary lectures of 30 minutes each, the regular contributions will consist of short oral presentations (10~15 minutes + 2 min for change of speaker). Each presentation, however, will also be accompanied by a poster, to be presented normally during the social hour after dinner. The poster session will allow ample time for questions and answers and informal discussion between presenter and interested participants. Additional free-forum poster presentations will also be invited.
Networking time will be allowed during each afternoon. This will allow participants to engage in informal discussions and to spend time together enjoying the many beautiful outdoors activities available in the region.
Publications
We propose the possible optional publication of PowerPoint presentations delivered at the conference in the ECI Digital Archives.
Invitation for full paper submission in a special issue of a suitable internationally recognized refereed journal will be organized.