Agilyx develops proprietary, patent-protected systems that economically convert difficult-to-recycle waste plastics into high-value synthetic oil. Its systems are sold to industrial and municipal waste-plastic generators and aggregators to reduce disposal costs and generate plastics-associated revenue while meeting environmental standards. In 2010 Agilyx opened a demonstration facility in Tigard, Oregon capable of processing 10 tons of plastic waste into roughly 55 barrels (~2,300 gallons) of synthetic oil per day. The synthetic oil is a drop-in replacement for fossil crude and is currently shipped to a Pacific Northwest refinery under a five-year offtake agreement signed in 2008. Agilyx was founded in 2004 and is based in Beaverton, Oregon. The company emphasizes landfill reduction and energy recovery from waste plastics as core benefits of its technology. Agilyx builds patented, brewery-like systems that thermally convert mixed plastic feedstock into a synthetic crude oil by heating materials until they vaporize and then condensing the gases. The company sells the synthetic crude through off-take deals with large refineries, often on behalf of customers that install Agilyx systems, and it also helps prospective buyers finance those systems. All installations to date have been terrestrial; Agilyx obtained its first air-emissions permits in Oregon and has four projects pending in California, expecting the largest to be permitted and operating by the end of 2011. Scaling to the mass market requires state-by-state permitting to demonstrate emissions safety. Company leadership and investors have discussed broader uses, including deploying systems on barges to address ocean plastic gyres. Agilyx competes with traditional recyclers, incinerators, landfills and alternative bioplastics but positions its process as an economic route for contaminated and mixed plastics.

Total raised

$47M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Series C

Latest activity

Dec 2011