Pyrowave, based in Montreal, recently received $3.3 million in funding from Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) to commericalize its patented Plastic-to-Plastic recycling technology.
The $3.2 million awarded to Pyrowave will be used to create a dedicated Research & Development unit of three PhD engineers allowing the company to continue to innovate towards a commercial-scale system that is able to regenerate post-consumer and postindustrial plastics to their full value.
Pyrowave Technology can yield up to 95% in styrene monomer concentrate, i.e. a yield approximately 3 times higher than the other industry technologies. This performance is made possible through the Pyrowave‑developed patented microwave technology.
Pyrowave Technology
Pyrowave’s patented microwave catalytic depolymerization technology is designed for polystyrene raw materials and can process the full range of expanded polystyrene (EPS) and high impact polystyrene (HIPS). The processing steps are as follows:
- The continuous process first prepares plastics into a mixture that removes contaminants such as labels and films as well as other impurities.
- The conditionned polystyrene is introduced into the reactor where it is mixed with silicon carbide particles to interact with a high energy microwave field.
- Microwaves heat up these particles very quickly, at very high temperatures, to break polymer chains and retrieve monomers (depolymerization).
- Post-consumer polystyrene is thus converted into a liquid rich in blocks – the monomers – to be purified and meet the same specifications as the virgin blocks.
- These purified and recycled blocks are then taken up by a manufacturer and transformed again into virgin resins, to manufacture new products.
One of the bonuses of the pyrowave technology is that it is GHG negative. Pyrowave’s technology emits three times less Greenhouse Gas Emissions to produce polystyrene from recycled material than from virgin fossil material and consumes 15 times less energy.
About Sustainable Development Technology Canada
Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) is a foundation created by the Government of Canada to advance clean technology innovation in Canada by funding and supporting small and medium-sized enterprises developing and demonstrating clean technology solutions.
