AGILYX: Technology, Expertise, and Purpose Fuels Plastic Change

It would be impossible to argue that plastic waste is an immense global challenge, one of the biggest and most urgent of our time with only 10% of post-use plastic recycled today. The rest, by virtue of its chemical complexity, contamination, and an infrastructure built for a different economy, is destined to end its serviceable life in landfills, incinerators or even as a part of the surrounding environment.

“This must change,” Agilyx CEO Tim Stedman stresses, “and this is really the fundamental premise of what Agilyx sets out to achieve in dealing with the issue of plastic waste – taking it and re-using it in its highest possible value application. Agilyx’s focus is on how to capture that elusive 90% of plastic not currently recycled and, alongside our partners, transform it.

“We provide a unique, integrated solution to the burning issue of plastic waste.”

Agilyx’s formation came more than 10 years before the interlinked, global UN Sustainable Development Goals were published. “We were founded to help solve the pressing issue of plastic waste,” Stedman details of a revolutionary introduction, “and have since launched commercial-scale plastic-to-plastic recycling technology and reimagined business models to accelerate global change.”

TECHNOLOGY-BASED SOLUTIONS

“The reality is that plastics are incredibly valuable when used in the right way, for the right purpose and then dealt with correctly,” Stedman summarises. “These are precious molecules and should be thought of as such, and a finite resource; rather than throwing any away we should be capturing each one and re-using it in the most valuable way imaginable.”

Stedman describes plastic as, “an above-ground hydrocarbon,” in that it is drilled for, brought above the surface and turned into plastic, only for humanity to then use it and summarily discard it. “We believe the time has come to expand advanced recycling,” he says, as a result, “and to give post-use plastic a new, circular life by converting this valuable material back into its original building blocks for reuse.

“By enabling plastic circularity on a global and commercial scale, we aim to play a vital role in accelerating the shift to a low-carbon economy.” This idea of creating sustainable, circular pathways for waste is one of Agilyx’s founding principles, using innovation and know-how to allow post-use plastic to be used and recycled again and again. “A step change is needed to shift from a linear to circular economy,” Stedman advocates.

“As plastic produced from waste plastic is estimated to have roughly half the carbon footprint of plastic made with fossil-fuel sources, advanced recycling also supports the low-carbon energy transition needed to tackle climate change and global warming.”

Agilyx is constantly redefining what is possible, redirecting ever-greater amounts of hard-to-recycle plastics from waste streams and converting them into valuable, low-carbon products. At its core, explains Stedman, is a much-vaunted, pioneering, employment of technology and innovation, which has entailed investments of upward of $150 million to date. “Our mission is to use innovative technology for good and help solve the problem of plastic waste,” he explains. “We provide the technology to take some of the most difficult waste and still see it turned into useable products.

“This can in a lot of instances mean reverting straight back to plastic, where we can use our technology, and our partners’ expertise, to go from very distressed waste back to food- and pharmaceutical-grade products. With thoughts of transition at the forefront, though,” Stedman goes on, “it can also be about identifying waste, especially that which is so distressed as to not really have a home or use anywhere else, and using it as a low-carbon fuel.”

LOW-CARBON FUEL PARTNERSHIP

In a monumental bid to address not only plastic pollution but the global transition to net-zero as whole, Agilyx has announced that it is to collaborate with Virgin Group in a strategic partnership to research and develop lower-carbon fuel facilities. The aim is to reuse plastic waste to produce synthetic crude oil that will then be refined into a lower carbon fuel, to broaden options in the market from the limited range available today.

This is not Agilyx’s first foray into energy, Stedman clarifies, rather it is re-entering an industry where it spent some of its formative years. “We have a track record of producing synthetic crude oil, but we realised after some years that this same technology could be used in a much more precise way to fully utilise its capabilities. Rather than the ‘sledgehammer approach’ to take it back to a crude oil, we saw that could in fact separate out types of plastic and take them directly back to their raw material.”

With this technology built and enabling different offerings for each type of plastic, delivering the true circularity that Agilyx is constantly striving to attain, Stedman explains that of late it has attracted much attention from other players, seeking to use the technology to support their transition to low-carbon. Now, in another significant development for the transition to future fuels, the Virgin Group calls upon Agilyx’s conversion technology to help achieve its ambitions of decarbonising aviation by relying on ever-increasing shares of low-carbon fuels by 2050.

“What both of us recognise is the craziness of the amount of wasted hydrocarbon in the world,” Stedman says of the genesis of this partnership, “and Virgin is equally passionate about correcting that as the drive towards net-zero. Initially, there is the beneficial opportunity to take this wasted plastic and capture it as a low-carbon fuel; what excites both us and Virgin, meanwhile, is that as the broader industry develops and capability increases our technology can be utilised to supplement other sources of sustainable fuel, not only from an aviation perspective but also in marine applications through Virgin’s massive cruise subsidiaries.

“This platform is unique as it will be used for lower carbon fuels, but also has the future opportunity to be integral in the production of circular plastics.”

The first waste-to-fuel location is planned to be in the US as Virgin works with Agilyx on the development of the production facilities based on its unique conversion technology, with the intention of rolling-out similar plants in other countries including the UK. Cyclyx, an innovative feedstock company that is majority owned by Agilyx, will source the plastic waste used for the fuel in the first facility.

“The scale of the challenge is enormous,” Stedman admits, “and our ambition is not just to serve subsidiary businesses, but the broader market so the opportunity is huge. We are taking a critical first step by embarking upon this project, capturing a resource that would otherwise be wasted and positioning ourselves for this crucial transition.”