Technip Energies, Alterra and Neste launch Nerea — a standardized modular solution for plastic chemical recycling
Technip Energies, Alterra and Neste have announced the commercial launch of Nerea, a standardized modular solution for chemical recycling of plastic waste that aims to accelerate project deployment by replacing bespoke engineering with a productized delivery model. The launch builds on a collaboration agreement signed by the three companies in November 2024 and combines Alterra’s thermochemical liquefaction technology, Neste’s chemical recycling and upgrading expertise, and Technip Energies’ engineering, project delivery and modularization capabilities.
Global plastics production has nearly doubled over the past two decades, reaching approximately 431 million tonnes in 2024. Circularity rates have not kept pace with consumption growth, resulting in significant volumes of plastic waste directed to incineration, landfill or environmental leakage. Simultaneously, regulatory developments in Europe and other jurisdictions are driving stronger demand for recycled and circular feedstocks, creating a structural pull for scalable chemical recycling capacity.
Nerea addresses this gap by offering a pre-engineered, modular plant design that minimizes pre-investment and reduces project complexity while providing greater certainty on cost and schedule. The standardized design is intended for rapid deployment across diverse industrial environments, converting heterogeneous and hard-to-recycle plastic waste into high-quality feedstock for the petrochemical industry.
Alterra’s thermochemical liquefaction technology has demonstrated more than five years of continuous commercial operation at its Akron, Ohio facility, processing real-world plastic waste streams. This operational track record provides a proven technology foundation for the Nerea offering.
“With Nerea, we are bringing together with our partners a proven technology, feedstock expertise and industrial delivery in a standardized offering, ready to deploy at scale,” said Julie Cranga, Senior Vice President Carbon Capture & Circularity Product Line at Technip Energies. “We are now pleased to offer Nerea to our customers, and provide them with greater predictability and performance in development, investment and operations phase, helping to accelerate chemical recycling worldwide.”
Fred Schmuck, Chief Executive Officer at Alterra, stated: “Nerea reflects a shared vision among our three companies: making circular solutions easier to deploy at industrial scale. By combining proven technology, industrial expertise and a standardized delivery model, we’re helping reduce the barriers that have traditionally slowed the growth of chemical recycling. Together with Technip Energies and Neste, we’re creating a more predictable and scalable pathway for transforming difficult-to-recycle plastics into valuable feedstocks for a circular economy.”
Lars Peter Lindfors, Senior Vice President Technology & Innovation at Neste, added: “Neste’s recently started upgrading unit in the Porvoo, Finland refinery is the world’s largest by capacity. We know how to turn low-quality raw materials into high-quality solutions and look forward to supporting industry scale-up with robust and easy-to-deploy technology to meet our own and others’ increasing demand for liquefied waste plastic.”
Neste’s Porvoo upgrading unit, which began operations recently, represents the world’s largest liquefied waste plastic upgrading capacity and serves as a reference for the downstream integration of Nerea’s output.
The modular approach reflects a broader industry trend toward productization in process technology deployment, where standardized, pre-fabricated units reduce on-site construction risk and compress project timelines. For waste operators, project developers and petrochemical companies, Nerea offers a pathway to chemical recycling capacity with reduced engineering burden and faster time-to-production.
Source: Technip Energies / Alterra / Neste joint press release, 29 June 2026