Chemical recycling companies continue to announce expansions and seek investments in an effort to fulfil obligations to their customers, ramp up production, or avoid debt. 

Here’s a list of notable recent developments this fall from major chemical recycling companies in North America:

ExxonMobil to expand Texas chemical recycling plants; further invest in Cyclyx venture

ExxonMobil says it will invest more than $200 million to expand its chemical recycling operations at its locations in Baytown and Beaumont, Texas. It expects the new operations to start up in 2026.

The company previously announced a broader goal to reach a “global recycling capacity” of 1 billion pounds per year by 2027. It expects the new Texas investment will add 350 million pounds per year, bringing ExxonMobil’s total chemical recycling capacity to 500 million pounds per year, the company said in a news release. 

ExxonMobil says it is “continuing to develop additional advanced recycling projects” at other manufacturing sites in North America, Europe and Asia, which it says will help contribute to the 1 billion-pound goal. 

Packaging companies such as Berry Global and Amcor have incorporated ExxonMobil’s chemically recycled feedstock, known as Exxtend, into their products. ExxonMobil says it has chemical recycling customers in more than 15 countries.

The Baytown facility, which started up in 2022, is one of the largest chemical recycling facilities in North America, the company says. It has processed 70 million pounds of plastic waste as of October 2024. 

The expansion news comes as some have expressed skepticism about ExxonMobil’s ability to execute on its larger chemical recycling plans. Over the summer, plastic waste meant to be collected by ExxonMobil was reportedly piling up at area drop-off centers. The company has also faced several lawsuits related to its recycling claims, including two related lawsuits filed in September by Rob Bonta, California’s Attorney General, and a group of environmental advocacy organizations. 

ExxonMobil also announced on Tuesday that it will contribute funding to build a new facility for Cyclyx International. The project is a joint venture with Agilyx and LyondellBasell. Cyclyx aims to source, collect and pre-process plastic waste for use in chemical and mechanical recycling applications. 

The three companies will contribute a total of $135 million to build a second “circularity center” in the region of Fort Worth, Texas, expected to open in the second half of 2026. That facility is meant to produce up to 300 million pounds of feedstock, including from plastics the company says are “not typically accepted in current industry recycling programs.”

Cyclyx’s first facility is expected to open in Houston in 2025, the company said in a news release. Combined, the two facilities are designed to process about 600 million pounds a year.

PureCycle opens new sorting facility amid operational, financial challenges

PureCycle has begun operations at its new 325,000-square-foot sorting facility in Denver, Pennsylvania. The company agreed to pay $52.3 million over 15 years to lease the facility, which opened in October, according to a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

The processing facility will use optical and robotic sorting technology to prepare recovered polypropylene to be shipped to PureCycle’s plant in Ironton, Ohio. The company uses a solvent process to break down plastic in a similar way to some other companies under the chemical recycling umbrella. 

PureCycle sees the new facility in Denver as an important part of streamlining operations in an effort to become profitable. The company has experienced several setbacks over the last few years, and its Q3 filing notes it has not produced enough product to generate revenue this year.

The Ironton facility has faced several significant mechanical problems. It announced an “operational pause” in April to make facility improvements, then resumed operations in May. The facility still needs between $5 million and $8 million in capital investment, the company said in the filing. It also noted it would need to make further investments in 2025 to keep its planned Augusta, Georgia, purification facility project on track. 

PureCycle also recently settled a $12 million lawsuit in May related to a significant power outage in August 2023, which investors said was kept quiet until months later in order to misrepresent productivity during that time.  

PureCycle reported a net loss of about $224 million in the first nine months of 2024. It also noted about $60.6 million in interest and principal payments and other ongoing management costs that have put a strain on finances. “(PureCycle) believes that its current level of unrestricted liquidity is not sufficient to fund operations, outstanding commitments, and further its future growth plans,” the company wrote in the SEC filing.

In August, the company sold about $22.5 million in bonds, earning $18 million in gross proceeds. In September, it entered into a “series of transactions” with Sylebra Capital Management and Samlyn Capital to raise gross proceeds of $90 million. “The capital raised should allow the Company to continue with its investments to facilitate future growth,” it said in the filing.

Alterra to license chemical recycling technology as part of modular plant partnership

Ohio-based chemical recycler Alterra has partnered with Finnish oil refiner Neste and French engineering company Technip Energies to collaborate on a “standardized solution” to build chemical recycling plants. 

The companies plan to offer “readily designed and engineered liquefaction plant modules” based on Alterra’s proprietary liquefaction technology. The companies say the pre-designed systems are meant to help chemical recyclers lower capital and investment costs and speed up implementation time.

Alterra and Neste will license the liquefaction technology and Technip will design, engineer and deliver the standardized plants, according to a news release. 

“We are ultimately enabling a copy-paste solution for liquefaction plants, allowing for a fast scale-up of economically viable recycling capacities globally,” said Frederic Schmuck, Alterra Energy’s CEO, in a statement.

Alterra in October also announced it had received an equity investment round with funding from Infinity Recycling, LyondellBasell and Chevron Phillips Chemical. Alterra also received additional equity investments as part of the round from Neste and Potenza Capital. Terms of the investments were not disclosed.