PureCycle Technologies, Inc. (PCT)

PureCycle Technologies (PCT) is commercializing a patented purification recycling technology, originally developed by The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) and held under a global license, that restores waste polypropylene into ultra-pure recycled (UPR) resin with near-virgin characteristics. The process uses a combination of solvent, temperature, and pressure, with super critical fluids that extract and filter out contaminants and purify color, opacity, and odor without changing the polymer's chemical bonds. The company expects this to use roughly one fourth of the energy needed to make virgin polypropylene. Its stated goal is to create a new segment of the global polypropylene market that helps multinationals meet sustainability goals and reduces polypropylene waste.

The business has two process steps: Feed Pre-Processing (Feed PreP), which collects, sorts, and prepares polypropylene waste, and purification. Its sole product is UPR resin. Company-cited testing shows it compares favorably to virgin polypropylene on melt flow, tensile modulus, impact strength, purity, and odor. Facilities include the Feedstock Evaluation Unit, an 11,000 square foot pilot-scale replica in Ironton, Ohio, operating since July 2019. The first commercial plant, also in Ironton, was certified mechanically complete in April 2023. It is designed to process 182 tons of feedstock per day and to reach about 107 million pounds per year of capacity. It has not yet reached significant continuous volumes and is expected to be fully operational later in 2024. Planned expansion includes a multi-line facility in Augusta, Georgia (up to eight lines, about 130 million pounds per line annually), a site in the Port of Antwerp, Belgium, and a joint venture with SK geo centric in Ulsan, South Korea. Feed PreP sites are planned, including a leased site in Denver, Pennsylvania, while a Central Florida site faces permitting difficulties. Expansion depends on project financing.

PCT intends to sell UPR resin to resin distributors, converters, compounders, consumer goods manufacturers, food and beverage producers, toy makers, and personal care producers. Polypropylene end markets include consumer packaged goods, electronics, automotive, building and construction, household goods, and agriculture. The company has signed 20+ year offtake and feedstock supply agreements with large multinational partners and has letters of intent. Demand is driven by corporate commitments to recycled content and reduced virgin plastic. The company contrasts its process with chemical recycling, which has higher energy use, emissions, and cost, and mechanical recycling, which leaves contaminants and yields lower-value uses. It obtained FDA approval or a Letter of No Objection for certain food-grade feedstock sources in September 2022 and plans further submissions.

Feedstock comes from pre-sorted polypropylene waste bought from suppliers and from unsorted plastic waste that PCT sorts itself; non-polypropylene material from Feed PreP will be baled and sold. The company operates under FDA, EPA, OSHA, and FTC requirements. Its intellectual property consists of fourteen licensed U.S. utility patents under the P&G License Agreement, which includes a grant-back sublicense to P&G, and the license could become non-exclusive if PCT fails to make payments or undergoes an unapproved change of control. PCT had 146 employees at December 31, 2023, none unionized, after a December 2023 reduction-in-force of 22 employees.