Agilyx changes course

Plummeting crude oil prices have led Agilyx, Tigard, Oregon, to reconsider its business model.

The company was founded in 2004 with the goal of converting difficult-to-recycle plastic scrap into synthetic crude oil using patented technology. However, with the current low pricing for crude oil, Agilyx has decided to reconsider its mission.

As reported in The Oregonian Feb. 21, 2016, the company says it has started shutting down its plastics-to-fuel production process after having produced nearly 800,000 gallons of oil.  

Chief Executive Officer Ross Patten tells The Oregonian, “We’re not giving up on plastics to oil. But right now the economic conditions of the oil industry don’t allow us to go forward.”

The company says it plans to retool its machinery to begin producing styrene, which can be used to produce polystyrene packaging material.

To produce styrene, Agilyx will need to begin with polystyrene plastic scrap, such as packaging trays for meat and other expanded polystyrene (EPS) packaging.  

Patten tells The Oregonian that the company has customers to purchase the styrene it will produce later this year, though he declined to name them because contracts had not been finalized.

“We know our technology has other applications, and that’s why we’re converting to styrene,” Patten told the paper, “because that’s a product we can convert into a product that can be more profitable.”