Yokogawa Signs Investment and Partnership Agreement with JEPLAN

Yokogawa Electric Corporation announced that it has signed an investment and partnership agreement with JEPLAN, Inc., a polyester material recycling company with a unique chemical recycling technology.  The two companies will partner in a business that makes use of this leading-edge recycling process.

Recently, as the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) suggests, there is a shared interest around the world in addressing environmental issues by means such as the recycling and reuse of resources.  For that reason, companies that use polyester resins as materials are increasingly looking to increase the ratio of recycled material in their products.

Polyester resin produced using JEPLAN's BRING Technology is of equal quality to conventional petroleum-based polyester resin.  In addition to enabling the repeated recycling and reuse of polyester resins, this technology is able to remove impurities, which is difficult in general recycling processes.  JEPLAN has conducted tests at a pilot plant that successfully demonstrated the use of this recycling technology on a near commercial scale and is now planning to launch large-scale production and supply of recycled plastic resins.

As part of its rollout of this new technology, JEPLAN is pursuing the introduction of information technology that will convert existing production facilities into smart plants, thereby enhancing productivity.  Through this partnership, Yokogawa will provide its latest measurement, control, and information technologies and products for use at these plants, thus enabling state-of-the-art resource circulation operations.

One of Yokogawa's three sustainability goals for the year 2050 is to make the transition to a circular economy.  Through this capital and business partnership with JEPLAN, Yokogawa will make progress toward its goal of fostering the creation of a resource-circulating society.