Plastic waste is one of the biggest challenges of our time — piling up in landfills, oceans, and even our food chain. Many recycling programs barely make a dent.
But PlasCred Circular Innovations (CSE:PLAS, FSE: XV2) believes it has the answer: a technology that can transform plastic waste into renewable feedstock, and a new commercial facility designed to do it at scale.
We were joined by Troy Lupul, President and CEO of PlasCred Circular Innovations to discuss.
Ricki: Troy, for anyone who is new to PlasCred, how can you explain what the company does?
Troy: What we do is something unique compared to a lot of parts of the world. We actually are a more advanced process, plastic recycling and we’ve done it on a scale that is very large, that makes a huge impact. Our logistics partner is CN, Canadian National Railways. So, you can see why that type of volumes, it’s going to make a major impact in North America.
Ricki: Well, there are many players out there in that industry claiming breakthroughs in advanced recycling. So, what makes PlasCred stand apart and why should investors see this as the real deal?
Troy: Well, this is the challenge in the world today, there’s been a lot of great science. I’m going to say it’s been fantastic but it’s not economical. So, you see a lot of technical success, but you see a lot of what I’m going to call financial failure. And as you know, in Alberta especially where we are, obviously natural gas is very cheap and a lot of the producers around the planet like to come here and make plastic. So, what better place to basically take raw mixed plastic from North America and actually bring it back here to where, let’s be honest, we have the expertise to crack it back to a renewable molecule so we can offset virgin feed stocks.
And I think, unlike Germany or the UK or even parts of the United States, we have a huge advantage here in Alberta, which is the Alberta Diluent Terminal. We broker about 1.1 million barrels a day of basically naphtha. So having that said, we’ve got a huge market here for that renewable molecule. And I think that’s what separates us apart because we are making the base molecule. And when you look at it, I see a lot of the projects that are, I’m going to say really great, I like the technology, and I think it’s fun, but it’s never going to make economic sense, and you’ve got to do it in the spot where the plastic actually originated from.
Ricki: So, you are moving now from pilot to commercial scale with the Neos facility in Fort Saskatchewan. Where are you in that process and how close are we to seeing these operations come online?
Troy: So, we’ve got a site, it’s a $200 million site. CN has leased it to us in Scotford, right in Fort Saskatchewan. We’ve had our pilot plant that does two barrels a day for the last two and a half years. And we’ve had different companies, different producers from around the world come in, do their testing and due diligence. And now our next phase is 500 barrels a day, which is very small in the oil and gas
sector. It’s not a huge leap, but in the plastics recycling world, it’s huge because that takes up a hundred tons or a hundred thousand kgs of raw mixed plastic a day. And as we move forward, obviously our primary objective is to do to 2000 barrels a day. So, we’ve got the runway to basically build it out to a real world class, full scale facility here in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta.
Ricki: Incredible. That’s, that’s amazing. So, you’ve now secured a $5 million grant from Emissions Reduction Alberta and a non-binding term sheet from the Business Development Bank of Canada for up to $8.5 million in debt financing. In total, that covers more than half of the cost of Neos, right? So how does this financial backing change the pace of your build out and what does it mean for getting this technology into the market sooner?
Troy: See, and that’s the great thing, and I love the province for doing that, that ERA grant and BDC, they’ve been first mover. And now it shows the investor community that we have a clear line of sight of financing that the project will get off. This is a very profitable opportunity for us because we have an amazing offtake agreement signed, a five year offtake agreement at $120 a barrel. We’re really excited about that.
So, I think our primary objective is to get it up and going once FID in 10 to 12 months we’ll be making our first barrel of renewable naphtha and be able to go to market. And our offtake partner has been phenomenal. They just cannot wait to get the product. Super excited.
Ricki: So, continuing to think about the future with Neos designed for replication and a larger Maximus platform already in the works, how big of an impact could PlasCred have on the global plastic waste crisis?
Troy: Well, that’s the perfect question because what it does is it allows PlasCred to become the biggest repository of all species of plastics from one to seven. It allows us to import plastics from Malaysia to Europe because we have an insatiable appetite for renewable naphtha. So, this allows us to take all the mixed plastic, whether it’s industrial, agriculture, municipal, and I think that’s one of the big game changers is creating that network for bringing the feedstock in, but also you have the market, you need the customer at the end of the rainbow.
And I think this is where we’ve really shined and we’re going to be very, very profitable, which is the key. And a lot of the mechanical recycling cannot do that in the world. They’re not scalable and nor can they basically be selective, they have to be so selective on what species of plastic they recycle. So, I think we’ve got a game changer here in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta that will basically become the largest, you know, I’m going to say aggregator of raw mixed plastic in the world.
Ricki: So, Fort Saskatchewan Alberta, today, tomorrow, the world. Exciting stuff there from Troy Lupul, President and CEO of PlasCred Circular Innovation.
PlasCred trades on the CSE under the ticker PLAS. To learn more about the company and its technology visit plascred.com.
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