Pyrowave receives recognition for its technology to depolymerize plastics

 

Montreal-based Pyrowave has announced that it won first place at the IQ-CHem  International Chemistry Innovation Competition organized by SIBUR, one of Russia’s largest integrated gas processing and petrochemicals company. In total, 251 teams from 27 countries took part in the sixth international IQ-CHEM contest, with applications from Russia, India, Canada, the Netherlands and the United States having been received.

The event took place at the Skolkovo Startup Village 2017 and involved a panel of judges that included directors and executives from companies such as The Dow Chemical Co., Linde, LG, Honeywell UOP, DuPont, 3M, BASF and Sinopec.

“We’re very proud to win this award, of course, because it rewards the extensive work we’ve put into the project but also because of the high technical level of the finalists we competed against,” says Jocelyn Doucet, CEO of Pyrowave. “Participating in and winning this competition gives Pyrowave enormous international exposure to key chemical companies that care about environmental sustainability of chemical operations.”

Pyrowave has proposed commercial modular technology that consists of small machines using microwave to depolymerize (or deconstruct) plastics. “It’s like unzipping the plastic into their initial constituents with the very targeted action of microwaves, so that plastic manufacturers can easily rezip them into new plastics that can be used in identical applications,” Doucet says.

Pyrowave says its process can convert polystyrene (PS) waste into recycled styrene monomer (RSM) with up to 90 percent yield and is supported by several members of the polystyrene value chain, including manufacturers, transformers, retailers and recyclers.

The company says it is ramping up production of its Valleyfield, Quebec, facility, which is processing postconsumer PS material. Pyrowave is looking for partners interested to supply PS volumes to be converted into RSM that can be reused to make virginlike polystyrene material. The company says it has supply in place from various municipal sorting facilities, as well as from private retailers, brand owners and recyclers.

“We are basically offering our long-term partners a possibility to recycle all their polystyrene waste, including foodservice items, and convert them into commodities traded on a worldwide market,” Doucet says. “We are currently working at filling up capacity of our first machine in operation, but our long-term model is to lease machines to partners and take care of the output for them.”

The company says it is looking for investors interested in joining its current series A funding. The funds will allow Pyrowave to build and install additional machines to increase its RSM production capacity.

“We have contracts in place with the largest polystyrene companies, and we need additional capacities to be able to match the enormous demand for recycled chemicals,” Doucet says.