Licella Pty Ltd has announced that it has formed Cat-HTR Plastics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Licella, to form a global joint venture (JV) with Armstrong Chemicals Ltd. The JV will build the world’s first commercial-scale hydrothermal upgrading plants for end-of-life plastic to chemicals and will come on line in 2018.
Licella Pty Ltd, an Australian developer of catalytic conversion technologies, has announced that it has formed Cat-HTR Plastics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Licella, to form a global joint venture (JV) with Armstrong Chemicals Ltd, a UK headed chemical major. The JV will build the world’s first commercial-scale hydrothermal upgrading plants for end-of-life plastic to chemicals and will come on line in 2018.
Licella, a subsidiary of Ignite Energy Resources (IER), has developed a unique “Catalytic Hydrothermal Reactor” (Cat-HTR) process to convert low-cost, non-edible, waste biomass into a stable bio-crude oil, which can be refined, in a conventional refinery, into next generation biofuels and renewable biochemicals.
Cat-HTR Plastics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Licella, has licensed the Cat-HTR technology to process end-of-life plastic to this new entity. In turn, Cat-HTR Plastics have signed an agreement to form a global JV with Armstrong Chemicals Ltd.
First commercial plant
The Cat-HTR Plastics and Armstrong Chemicals (JV) will build the world’s first commercial scale hydrothermal upgrading plant, utilising Licella’s patented Cat-HTR upgrading platform. Following a series of extensive and successful trials at Licella’s large pilot plant on the New South Wales (NSW) central coast in Australia, the new commercial-scale Cat-HTR plant will divert previously unusable end-of-life plastic from landfill and convert it into valuable chemicals, with the first plant due to come on line during 2018.
The JV will earn a licence fee and royalties from the projects, with plans for a global roll out.
