PureCycle’s Ohio facility produces first pellets

PureCycle Technologies Inc., headquartered in Orlando, Florida, has produced the first run of what it calls ultra-pure recycled (UPR) resin from postindustrial recycled material at its commercial-scale flagship polypropylene (PP) recycling facility in Ironton, Ohio.

According to a news release from PureCycle, this run of postindustrial material allowed PureCycle’s manufacturing team to test the core technology concepts across various operating conditions. Once fully operational, the Ironton facility is projected to have an annual production capacity of 107 million pounds of UPR resin.

RELATED: Update: PureCycle completes construction of Ohio PP purification plant

PureCycle licensed the technology used at the site from consumer products company P&G and began construction on a pilot facility in 2017.

PureCycle says its technology, which is a solvent-based extraction and purification process that does not involve chemical reactions, is designed to purify PP in a variety of shapes and sizes and with a range of contaminants. The PureCycle UPR resin will be a like-virgin material, easily colorable and 100 percent recyclable.

“This is a momentous achievement for all of the stakeholders that believed in us, for PureCycle and, most importantly, our planet,” says Dustin Olson, CEO of PureCycle. “No one here today will ever forget the feeling when the commercial-scale pellets were produced for the first time. With this major milestone complete, we have demonstrated that the fundamental technology works as expected and at scale. This is another important step in our mission towards helping to solve the plastic waste crisis. We will build upon this accomplishment to optimize our process in order to demonstrate our technology across a variety of operating conditions and feedstocks.”

PureCycle says documentation of this milestone will be submitted to the site’s independent construction monitor for formal certification of completion. According to PureCycle, certification is required to achieve a milestone in connection with the facility’s financing.

The company has announced a number of offtake customers over the years, including beauty company L’Oréal, Paris, and Berry Global Group Inc., based in Evansville, Indiana.

PureCycle also said earlier this year that Romeoville, Illinois-based engineered materials distributor Formerra will serve as the primary authorized North American distributor of PureCycle’s recycled PP resin, called PureFive.