Read this first: this is a market map built from public sources, not a client list. Naming a company here says nothing about whether we work with them, and we do not claim to represent any of them. This is a market map, built from what each company has published about its own activity, because "who actually buys pyrolysis oil" is the question we are asked most and there is no honest public answer to it. Knowing who has capacity tells you what specification the market wants, and that is worth more than a list of phone numbers.
- 1Steam crackers: chlorine, silicon and metals
- 2Refineries: sulphur, nitrogen and stability
- 3Carbon black producers: aromatic content
- 4Industrial burners: calorific value and handling
- 5Traders bridging any of the above
Being turned down by one outlet does not mean being turned down by the market. The aromatic content that rules a tyre oil out of a cracker is exactly what a carbon black producer is looking for.
The four routes, and which one your oil fits
There is no single buyer for pyrolysis oil. There are four routes, they want different things, and the one you can reach is decided by your analysis rather than by your sales effort. Start here, then read the section that applies to you.
| Route | What happens to the oil | What it demands | Who is doing it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Petrochemical: straight into a cracker | Becomes certified circular polymer. | The tightest specification of the four, and ISCC PLUS. Chlorine is the parameter that decides it. | BASF through ChemCycling, SABIC under TRUCIRCLE, LyondellBasell with MoReTec. |
| Refining: upgrading and co-processing | Upgraded or co-processed in an existing refinery unit. | Built for difficult feed rather than easy feed, so consistency matters more than perfection. Chlorine and silicon decide whether it runs. | Neste at Porvoo, up to 150,000 tonnes a year on an investment of roughly EUR 111 million. TotalEnergies at Antwerp since 2020 and at Grandpuits from March 2026, around 15,000 tonnes a year. |
| Purification: the step in the middle | Cleaned up by a third party until it reaches cracker specification. | This is the route for oil that does not make the first one on its own. Most producers do not know it exists. | Gunvor purifies plastic derived pyrolysis oil at its Rotterdam operation and has described supplying cracker ready feedstock to Dow. Freepoint Eco-Systems has an announced arrangement to supply Dow with roughly 65,000 tonnes a year, from Arizona into the US Gulf Coast rather than into Europe. |
| Outside Europe, and the other outlets | Export, or lower value energy and blending outlets. | Lower barriers, and correspondingly lower value. Worth knowing before you turn down a European buyer over price. | Covered further down this page. |
The pattern worth taking away: the capacity being built in Europe is for difficult feed, not for easy feed. That means the bottleneck in this market is not tonnage, it is whether your oil is clean enough and consistent enough to run. Two parameters carry most of that weight, and they are chlorine and silicon.
For what those parameters mean and how they are measured, see pyrolysis oil, which now sets out a full certificate of analysis parameter by parameter, including the two different chlorine figures that a laboratory reports and that are not interchangeable.
The petrochemical route: pyrolysis oil into new polymer
These are companies that feed pyrolysis oil into a cracker or a production network to make certified circular polymer. This is where the premium sits, and it is why chlorine and ISCC PLUS matter so much: see plastic pyrolysis oil.
- BASF runs ChemCycling, feeding pyrolysis oil into its Verbund production network at the start of the value chain. It has worked with technology partners specialising in mixed plastic waste pyrolysis and in end-of-life tyre pyrolysis, and invested in a pyrolysis oil purification specialist in Norway. Notably, BASF is one of the few that has taken both plastic-derived and tyre-derived oil.
- SABIC uses pyrolysis oil to produce certified circular polymer under its TRUCIRCLE portfolio, including polypropylene that has gone into consumer products.
- LyondellBasell is building an industrial-scale advanced recycling demonstration plant at Wesseling, Germany, using its MoReTec technology to convert polyolefin waste into pyrolysis oil and gas. The project was selected for a EUR 40 million EU Innovation Fund grant.
- Dow has an agreement to be supplied with pyrolysis oil from recycled plastic waste at its site in Terneuzen, the Netherlands, used as feedstock for polymer production.
The refining route: upgrading and co-processing
What this tells you as a producer is more useful than the names. Capacity is being built for difficult feed, not easy feed, which means the bottleneck is not volume, it is whether your oil is clean enough and consistent enough to run. Chlorine and silicon decide that. See pyrolysis oil.
- Neste commissioned an upgrading facility for liquefied waste plastic at its Porvoo refinery in Finland, with capacity for up to 150,000 tonnes a year and an investment of roughly EUR 111 million. It was built specifically for difficult streams: multi-layer packaging, mixed and contaminated plastics. Neste has processed liquefied waste plastic since 2020.
- TotalEnergies has processed pyrolysis oil at its Antwerp petrochemical platform since 2020, and started up France's first advanced plastics recycling plant at Grandpuits in March 2026 at around 15,000 tonnes a year.
Beyond Europe, because the question rarely stops at the border
Producers ask us about Europe first and then immediately about everywhere else, so it is worth naming the largest player. Again: publicly reported activity, drawn from public sources.
- ExxonMobil runs advanced recycling under its Exxtend technology and is the biggest single name in the field by capacity. Its operation at Baytown, Texas has expanded in stages, with a third unit taking capacity to roughly 250 million pounds of plastic waste a year, about 113,000 tonnes, and the company has said it is on track for around 450 million pounds annually across its global sites by the end of 2026, roughly 204,000 tonnes. The output feeds certified circular polymers.
- Asia matters more than European producers assume. ExxonMobil has publicly described pyrolysis oil produced at Baytown being converted into raw materials at its chemical plant in Singapore, and has had Southeast Asian recycling projects in the 2025 to 2026 window. For a producer in Asia or Latin America, freight to Asia can beat freight to Rotterdam.
- The specification does not get easier abroad. If anything the qualifying specifications quoted by major buyers outside Europe are tighter, not looser, and the qualification process is longer. Distance does not rescue a cargo that cannot pass in Europe.
The purification step in the middle, which most producers miss
There is a layer between a pyrolysis plant and a cracker that gets left out of most conversations, and it is often the one that decides whether a producer has a market at all. Raw pyrolysis oil frequently does not reach petrochemical specification on its own. Somebody has to upgrade it.
That work is done by refiners and specialist processors rather than by the pyrolysis plant, and it is a real commercial route. Gunvor purifies pyrolysis oil derived from plastic waste at its Rotterdam refining operation and has publicly described supplying cracker-ready feedstock to Dow in Europe. For scale, Freepoint Eco-Systems has an announced arrangement to supply Dow with roughly 65,000 tonnes a year of certified circular pyrolysis oil from a plant at Eloy, Arizona, with the first phase from 2026. That one runs into Dow's United States Gulf Coast operations, not into Europe, and we say so because the model travels even where the tonnes do not: a dedicated aggregator feeding one polymer producer under a long term contract.
- What this means if your oil is not cracker grade. You are not necessarily out of the market. You may be feeding the purification step rather than the cracker, and that is a different buyer with a different specification and a different price.
- Ask which one you are talking to. A purifier tolerates contamination that a cracker will not, because removing it is their business. Being turned down by a polymer producer is not the same as being turned down by the market.
- It changes what you should put in your pack. A purifier wants to know what is in the oil and how consistently. A cracker wants to know it is already clean. Same parcel, two different conversations.
The plants coming, and what they tell you about timing
- Eni, through Versalis, is building its Hoop chemical recycling plant on pyrolysis of mixed plastic packaging waste, with a stated processing capacity of 40,000 tonnes a year producing roughly 32,000 tonnes a year of pyrolysis oil, targeted for completion by the end of 2028. Separately it has launched the authorisation process for a biorefinery at Priolo in Sicily for HVO diesel and SAF.
- MOL Group is building a pyrolysis plant of around 40,000 tonnes capacity and has completed a first ISCC PLUS certified production run on recycled-content feedstock at its petrochemical site in Tiszaujvaros, Hungary. Its stated ambition runs to 1.5 million tonnes of plastic scrap feedstock by 2030.
- Read the dates, not just the tonnages. A plant completing in 2028 is buying feedstock and qualifying suppliers well before then. If you are a producer, the qualification conversation for that capacity is happening now, not in 2028. See how to sell pyrolysis oil in Europe.
The other outlets people forget
- Carbon black producers, for tyre-derived heavy fraction. The aromatic content that rules the oil out of a cracker is exactly what they want: see tyre pyrolysis oil.
- Refiners co-processing at low ratio into conventional streams, which is a different conversation from a dedicated unit: see co-processed fuels.
- Fuel blenders and industrial users for material that will not reach petrochemical specification. Lower value, but real and immediate.
- Traders and physical intermediaries who aggregate small parcels into cargo-sized lots. Useful when your volume is below what a major will look at.
How to actually approach any of them
Not with an email saying you have pyrolysis oil. Every one of these companies receives those weekly and ignores them.
If you are not sure who to approach, start with who buys pyrolysis oil in Europe, which sets out the companies that actually have capacity and what each one is known to take.
What gets read is a complete pack: feedstock, process, country of origin, monthly tonnage and annual capacity, storage and loading, certification status, a dated laboratory assay with chlorine and silicon on it, and evidence that two or three batches look alike. The full route is set out on how to sell pyrolysis oil in Europe.
And be realistic about scale. A demonstration plant taking 15,000 tonnes a year is not going to build a process around 200 tonnes a month unless somebody aggregates it first. That aggregation is one of the things a broker is actually for.
A note on accuracy
Everything above comes from what these companies have published about their own activity, and capacity announcements move: plants get delayed, projects get cancelled, and offtake arrangements are rarely public. Treat this as orientation and verify anything you are about to act on.
We name no client of ours anywhere on this site, and we do not claim to represent any company listed here. Read this page as orientation on where capacity exists, nothing more. If a broker tells you they can sell your cargo to a named major, ask them to be precise about what that means before you believe it.
Frequently asked questions
Who buys pyrolysis oil?
Four classes of buyer, and the oil's specification decides which door opens: petrochemical crackers taking certified plastic pyrolysis oil into new polymer, refineries co-processing it into fuels, cement kilns and industrial burners paying for energy content, and upgrading plants purifying it in between. Europe concentrates the first two, and this page names the plants -- the country questions below it answer where each class sits.
I am buying a pyrolysis plant. Can you already help?
That is the best moment to talk to us, because the projected specification decides which buyers will ever qualify the oil. Bring the machine offer and the feedstock plan, see our machine guide, and we will tell you where the output lands before you pay for the reactor.
Can pyrolysis oil be sold in batches from storage?
Yes, tank-blended or segregated batches sell individually against their own certificates, storage turning one stream into a catalogue. The tank is a price list in disguise.
What is pyrolysis oil's market maturity?
Adolescent, real buyers and real prices with qualification still the entry toll, the market doubling its seriousness yearly. Young enough for pioneers, old enough for contracts.
Who buys pyrolysis oil in the Netherlands?
The Rotterdam refining and chemical complex, with terminals, co-processing pilots and qualification programs concentrated around Europe's petro heart. The Netherlands is where pyrolysis oil knocks on the industry's door.
Can I sell pyrolysis oil to the UK?
Yes, British projects and fuel applications take suitable pyrolysis streams, the market earlier-stage than the continent's. UK pyrolysis buyers are learners with chequebooks.
Who buys pyrolysis oil in Scandinavia?
Nordic chemical clusters and fuel projects, the region's process industry tradition extending to circular feeds. Scandinavia treats pyrolysis oil as chemistry, which is correct.
Who buys pyrolysis oil in Spain?
Spanish refining interests and chemical parks exploring circular feeds, the Iberian peninsula joining the qualification race. Spain buys pyrolysis oil at Iberian speed, deliberate.
Is Asian pyrolysis output coming to Europe?
Yes, Asian plant output ships west when European intake specs and freight align, qualification being border-blind as always. The cargo's accent is its certificate.
Who buys pyrolysis oil in Belgium?
The Antwerp and Ghent chemical and refining cluster, among the densest concentrations of potential pyrolysis intake in Europe, from cracker qualification programs to co-processing units. Belgian buyers are further along the qualification curve than most.
Can I sell pyrolysis oil from a plant in Asia?
Yes, Asian plant output sells into Europe where the analysis clears European intake specs, with freight and qualification the hurdles rather than origin. The first cargo is a chemistry exam, and it is origin-blind.
What quality do pyrolysis oil buyers screen on?
Chlorine, water, sulphur, solids and the fraction picture, the same five numbers everywhere from crackers to fuel users, weighted differently per door. The five number certificate is the market's door key.
What volumes do pyrolysis buyers take?
Plant qualification usually starts at isotank scale and grows to monthly tanker parcels as trust in consistency grows. Nobody's first pyrolysis deal is big, and everybody's tenth can be.
Do pyrolysis oil buyers require ISCC PLUS?
The chemical routes claiming recycled content do, and that certificate is part of what turns plastic-derived oil from fuel value into chemical value. The fuel doors do not, and they also do not pay chemical prices.
How many European buyers are real today?
More than the skeptics think and fewer than the project developers say, a list we keep current and introduce against only with qualification-ready analysis. The real number question is not how many, but which ones are taking third party oil this quarter.
Does OMV buy pyrolysis oil?
OMV runs its own ReOil pyrolysis route in Austria, which makes it one of the European names to know, alongside the crackers and chemical companies on this page. Whether OMV takes third party oil depends on their current programme, and a qualified introduction is the way to find out.
Does Shell buy pyrolysis oil?
Shell has run pyrolysis-based projects and chemical recycling ambitions, but intake always comes down to a specific unit, a specification and a qualification round, not to the logo on the gate. We place oil with the buyers whose units actually run on it today.
Are there pyrolysis oil buyers outside Europe?
Yes, and we place worldwide. Europe has the densest cracker network, but upgrading plants and fuel applications elsewhere take pyrolysis oil too. Where your cargo lands depends on specification and logistics, not on a map preference.
What price do pyrolysis oil buyers pay?
There is no single price. The offer follows the analysis: chlorine, water, sulphur and the fraction set the discount against whatever the oil could become after upgrading. Our pyrolysis oil page and prices page explain how the number is built before you ask a buyer for one.
Will buyers pay more for certified pyrolysis oil?
For the buyers who need the claim, certification is the entry ticket rather than a bonus: no certificate, no offer. For buyers who do not need it, the analysis rules. Knowing which type you are talking to saves months.
Can tyre pyrolysis oil go to cement kilns?
Yes, cement kilns run on alternative fuels and take suitable pyrolysis oil as an energy stream, which makes them one of the fallback routes for oil that does not meet cracker or fuel specifications. It is a lower-value home, and we say so when it is the honest one.
My pyrolysis oil is not clean enough for a cracker. Is that the end of it?
Not necessarily. There is a purification layer between the pyrolysis plant and the petrochemical buyer that most producers overlook. Gunvor purifies plastic-derived pyrolysis oil at its Rotterdam operation and has publicly described supplying cracker-ready feedstock to Dow in Europe. Separately, Freepoint Eco-Systems has an announced arrangement to supply Dow with around 65,000 tonnes a year, but that one runs from Eloy, Arizona into Dow's US Gulf Coast operations rather than into Europe. A purifier tolerates contamination a cracker will not, because removing it is their business. Being turned down by a polymer producer is not the same as being turned down by the market.
Which new pyrolysis capacity is being built in Europe?
Eni, through Versalis, is building its Hoop plant on pyrolysis of mixed plastic packaging waste, stated at 40,000 tonnes a year of input producing roughly 32,000 tonnes a year of pyrolysis oil, targeted for the end of 2028. MOL Group is building a plant of around 40,000 tonnes capacity and has already completed an ISCC PLUS certified run at Tiszaujvaros in Hungary, with a stated ambition of 1.5 million tonnes of plastic scrap feedstock by 2030. Worth reading the dates as well as the tonnages: a plant completing in 2028 is qualifying suppliers now.
Does ExxonMobil buy pyrolysis oil?
ExxonMobil operates advanced recycling under its Exxtend technology and is the largest single name in the field by announced capacity. Its Baytown, Texas operation has grown in stages to roughly 250 million pounds of plastic waste a year, about 113,000 tonnes, and the company has said it is targeting around 450 million pounds annually across its global sites by the end of 2026. It has also described pyrolysis oil from Baytown being converted at its chemical plant in Singapore. That is publicly reported activity, not a statement about who they buy from. We name no client of ours anywhere on this site.
Who buys pyrolysis oil in Europe?
For the petrochemical route: BASF through its ChemCycling programme, SABIC for TRUCIRCLE circular polymer, LyondellBasell with its MoReTec plant at Wesseling, and Dow at Terneuzen. For refining and upgrading: Neste at Porvoo with up to 150,000 tonnes a year of capacity, and TotalEnergies at Antwerp and Grandpuits. Alongside those sit carbon black producers for tyre-derived heavy fraction, refiners co-processing, and fuel blenders. These are publicly reported activities, not a customer list of ours.
Does BASF buy pyrolysis oil?
BASF operates ChemCycling, which feeds pyrolysis oil into its Verbund production network to make products from chemically recycled plastic waste. It has worked with partners specialising in both mixed plastic waste and end-of-life tyre pyrolysis, which makes it one of the few taking both types. Whether it will buy your specific oil is a question of specification and volume, not of whether the route exists.
Does Neste take pyrolysis oil?
Neste has processed liquefied waste plastic, including pyrolysis oil, since 2020 and commissioned an upgrading facility at its Porvoo refinery with capacity for up to 150,000 tonnes a year, built specifically for difficult streams such as multi-layer packaging and contaminated plastics. The scale means specification and consistency matter more than volume.
What is LyondellBasell MoReTec?
LyondellBasell's advanced recycling technology, converting polyolefin waste into pyrolysis oil and pyrolysis gas. The company is building an industrial-scale, fully electrified demonstration plant at Wesseling in Germany, a project selected for a EUR 40 million EU Innovation Fund grant.
Can you introduce me to these companies?
We can tell you honestly which of them is realistic for your specific oil, and we have our own buyer relationships across refiners, crackers, carbon black producers and blenders. What we will not do is claim a relationship we do not have. Send the assay and the monthly volume and you will get a straight answer, including if the answer is that you are not ready for that conversation yet.
My volume is small. Is there any point?
Yes, but not by approaching a major directly. A plant built around 150,000 tonnes a year will not build a process for 200 tonnes a month. Aggregating small parcels into cargo-sized lots is exactly what a broker does, and it is often the difference between a producer having a market and not having one.
Market news
The most recent headlines touching this market, followed by wider news from across the feedstock and renewable fuel sector. The links go to the publisher; we do not host or edit their reporting, and a headline here is not our endorsement of it. Scroll for more.
- The Digest’s 2026 Multi-Slide Guide to Pipeline Access for Biofuels
- Scientists urged to crack green hydrogen cost barrier
- Neste and United Airlines extend SAF agreement
- WELTEC BIOPOWER begins construction of 60GW Spanish biomethane plant
- U.S. ethanol exports set new records
- FedEx expanding SAF procurement across five US airports in 2027
- Pertamina seeks ethanol import excise exemption
- Senate advances bill to allow year-round E15
- The Digest’s 2026 Multi-Slide Guide to Regional SAF Distribution
- Research and innovation projects supporting the Circular Economy Act Focus area : extended producer responsibility
- Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation: Stakeholder consultation on the methods for defining classes of performance and labels
- Research and innovation projects supporting the Circular Economy Act, Focus area : circular public procurement
- Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation: Stakeholder consultation on the method for identifying and tracking substances of concern in products
- Birla Carbon to present ‘next-generation carbon solutions’ at Global Polymer Summit 2026
- ‘World’s first hydrogen-fuelled engine for large commercial vessels’ completes land-based testing
- Moeve breaks ground on renewable hydrogen project
- Yokogawa wins order from KHI for hydrogen-fuelled vessels
- Azane and Yara ink ammonia supply agreement
18 headlines, updated automatically. Last refreshed .
Sources and further reading
Primary sources for the rules and figures on this page, so you can check them yourself. Legislation is amended: always read the consolidated text on the date that matters to you.
- Dow and Gunvor: purifying plastic waste streams (Dow press release)
- Dow and Freepoint Eco-Systems supply agreement (Dow press release)
- ExxonMobil, advanced recycling described on their own site
- BASF ChemCycling, the programme described on their own site
- SABIC circular economy programme
- LyondellBasell sustainability and advanced recycling
- Neste
- TotalEnergies
- EU Innovation Fund, European Commission
- ISCC PLUS, the scheme used for circular and bio based materials
Who to ask about Who buys pyrolysis oil
Just ask. Want to know which of these is realistic for your specific oil? Send the assay and we will tell you honestly. You get Bart van den Brug on the other end, same working day, in English or Dutch, and across the team also in French, Portuguese, Polish, Czech and Russian.
On how we work: on the feedstocks and fuels on this site we are a broker. We never take title, we do not trade our own book, and we are paid a commission on business that concludes. Additives are the one exception: those we also buy and sell for our own account, and we say in which capacity we are acting before you commit to anything. Either way you will hear it from us when the answer is no, or when your parcel is not ready for the conversation you want to have. A market read or a second opinion on a specification costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Happy to look at whatever you have, even if it is half an analysis and a question.
+31 6 115 83 448
bart@sustainablecommodities.eu
Sustainable Commodities 3 B.V., Lemmer, the Netherlands
Ask about Who buys pyrolysis oil
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Last reviewed 21 September 2026. Regulatory references are given for orientation and are not legal advice: verify against the current Official Journal text before contracting.