Agilyx, Toyo report progress on polystyrene recycling facility design

Agilyx Corp., Tigard, Oregon, and Toyo Styrene Co. Ltd., a Toyko-based affiliate of Denka Co. Ltd., have announced they are 30 percent complete with the final phase of developing the front-end loading design to deploy Agilyx's technology near Toyo Styrene’s facility in the Chiba prefecture of Japan.

According to a news release from Agilyx, the facility will focus on recycling postuse polystyrene (PS) plastic back to a styrene monomer. In April, Agilyx had announced the licensing of its technology to Toyo Styrene.

“We are extremely proud of the work that members of Agilyx and Toyo have accomplished to get the project to this point,” says Tim Stedman, CEO of Agilyx. “This further solidifies the efforts going on at Agilyx to increase global plastic recycling through circular pathways. We are excited to provide our proven solution into the Asian markets that will greatly improve recycled plastic content availability.”

Sanshiro Matsushita, president of Toyo Styrene, says Japan has “a real need” to chemically recycle PS. He adds that he is satisfied with the progress of the design development of this project. “Despite the tough situation brought on by COVID-19 at the beginning of the year, the teams at both companies have been working hard, making the best of long-distance collaboration,” Matsushita says.

Agilyx reports that the advanced recycling facility is designed to convert up to 10 tons per day of postindustrial and postconsumer PS into a styrene monomer that will be purified using Toyo Styrene’s proprietary purification process. The facility is on target to meet its goal of commencing operations in early 2022.