Plastics

Agilyx expands processing capabilities

Agilyx, an environmental technology and development company based in Tigard, Oregon, has expanded its plastic recycling capabilities to include producing feedstock for ethylene processing facilities, known as crackers, that can be used to make ethylene and propylene. The company says this achievement, enabling production of new plastic from scrap plastic, is a circular method for manufacturing feedstocks used to produce polymers.

“This expansion of our production capabilities is a significant step in addressing environmental issues associated from the evolving plastics industry,” Agilyx CEO Joe Vaillancourt says. “Agilyx has spent many years combining a differentiated technology, demonstrating deep expertise in the chemical characterization and conversion of a wide variety of waste plastics and polymers into a broad set of fuels and chemical substrates.”

He adds, “We are eager to provide sustainable and economic alternatives to the petrochemical industry and our growing set of strategic partners.”

Based on 14 years of research, scrap plastic materials management and commercial operations, Agilyx says it has developed a set of new chemical recycling pathways for scrap plastics to produce fuels and chemical substrates. The company says its products have an average carbon footprint that is 40 to 70 percent lower than traditional manufacturing. From its initial commercial product—a Toxic Substances Control Act- (TSCA-) registered synthetic crude produced from a broad range of difficult-to-recycle mixed plastics—Agilyx expanded its technical platform to produce styrene oil.

Agilyx subsequently built a commercial facility capable of recycling otherwise nonrecyclable polystyrene (PS) material into a styrene monomer that is appropriate for use in manufacturing virgin PS products, the company says.

Agilyx says its new product expands the amount of mixed plastics, including polyethylene and polypropylene, that can be diverted from landfill.