The agreement with Manali Petrochemicals Limited will see the Indian market leader retrofit an existing production facility to commercialise Econic’s carbon-to-value technology.

---

London, 19 July 2022 – Econic Technologies, the UK’s deep-tech carbon-to-value pioneer, has today announced the finalisation of a Joint Development and Technology Transfer Agreement with Manali Petrochemicals Limited (MPL), the market leader and only integrated polyol producer in India.

The signing of the legal agreement sets the next stage of the Econic-MPL partnership to scale up and manufacture CO₂ containing polyols initially in Manali’s demo scale facilities, followed by retrofit of Manali’s 12,000+ industrial scale reactors with Econic’s proprietary process. Both companies are aligned to drive the commercialisation of CO₂ containing polyols for use in essential polyurethane products to meet consumer demand.

The agreement consolidates the Memorandum of Understanding the two organisations entered into last year and represents a significant step in the global scale-up of Econic Technologies and its catalyst and process technology. It also reflects the Indian market-leader’s vote of confidence in Econic in the company’s ground-breaking technology. The future reaching long-term partnership is of strategic importance for both companies and presents important opportunities to respond to customer demand for sustainable options of CO₂ containing products.

Keith Wiggins, CEO of Econic Technologies, said of the new agreement:“We appreciate this next development in our partnership with MPL and the opportunity to work with them as a pioneering licensee of Econic’s technology in one of the biggest and fastest growing geographies. There is undeniable momentum for solutions that meet consumer demand for more sustainable products made using waste CO₂, and we’re delighted to be leading the way together in this area.”

Ashwin Mutiah, Chair of AM International, Manali’s parent company said: “Science and innovation will play a key role in ensuring that our manufacturing plants implement eco-friendly and cost-efficient technology. MPL’s partnership with Econic Technologies brings significant R&D-led improvements to the production process. Alongside delivering a greener product to our customers, it reaffirms our ESG commitment towards a carbon neutral planet.”

---

Please get in touch for more information, or to find out how we can help turn waste CO₂ into added value for your business.

Author, Anthea Blackburn

Econic Technologies is scaling its pioneering deep-tech carbon-to-value technology with partnership in the industry’s most important market.

---

9^th June 2022 – Econic Technologies, the deep-tech carbon-to-value pioneer, has today announced a ground-breaking partnership with leading independent Chinese polyol and polyurethanes company Changhua Chemical Technology Company Ltd, part of Jiangsu Changshun Group. The partnership was marked in a ceremonial signing on 8th June attended by the Mayor of Jiangsu province, where Changhua is based.

This multi-year partnership is born from both companies’ shared values – namely, the creation of a market for CO₂ products, in line with the global drive to achieve net zero and to meet increasing consumer demand for more sustainable products. By replacing oil raw materials with waste CO₂ in essential polyurethane products, both companies will sustainably grow the market. The collaboration is an important step in the emerging carbon-to-value sector.   

The agreement involves both parties collaborating to develop CO₂-based polyurethane products to be manufactured in China and sold under license in China and worldwide. It will involve Changhua building the first dedicated production plants for these products to serve the growing demand for sustainable products. Both companies are aligned to make a serious contribution to carbon reduction and to drive the sustainable advancement of the polyurethane market.

Dr Gu, Chairman of Changhua Chemical Technology, commented: “In line with my company’s mission to grow and be recognized as the most innovative and sustainable polyurethane producer in the world, we identified Econic’s technology as being best-in-class for incorporating CO₂ into polyurethanes. This long-term agreement demonstrates Changhua’s leadership and ambition in the sector.”

Keith Wiggins, CEO of Econic Technologies, commented: “We are honoured to be partnered with Changhua, China’s leading innovator of polyurethanes. Working with Changhua to this point has reinforced our shared values, and we are excited to build with them a sustainable future that creates value from CO₂ to make essential polyurethane products better.”

The partnership with Changhua follows Econic’s recent announcement of the first round of a multimillion-pound capital raise, and receipt of a UK Government funding award.

---

Please get in touch for more information, or to find out how we can help turn waste CO₂ into added value for your business.

Author, Anthea Blackburn

The transfer of Econic’s technology, from laboratory, to pilot plant and then to a large-scale industrial production plant, is a process fundamental to the commercialisation of Econic’s world leading sustainable catalyst technologies.  Noushin Zaynalzadeh, one of our Process Engineers, is key in leading and managing the steps required to take our process off the drawing board and from the bench, and into reality.

Ensuring that the fundamentals of our process are captured in such a way that end users or engineering partners can translate them into pipework and steel is a key responsibility for Noushin.  The process must not only be captured accurately and efficiently, but most importantly safely.

“Working across many functions and teams within Econic, from research, process development and on to our Customer Demonstration Facility involves understanding a huge array of scientific and engineering concepts, which can certainly be challenging, but is also very rewarding. Add into that mix liaising with our external engineering partners to bring all of these pieces of information together into a cohesive framework – it certainly keeps me on my toes!”

As we move closer to the commercialisation of our catalyst technologies, Noushin’s contribution to such developments form a cornerstone of our ability to deliver the Econic technology to the market, helping our customers to realise the full potential of incorporating waste CO₂ into their polyol and downstream plastics applications.

---

Get in touch to find out how we can help turn waste CO₂ into added value for your business.

Author, Econic

As Econic grows significantly and moves towards commercialisation, so too do our scientific innovations. These technological developments form part of the foundation, and the future, of our company, so it’s important that we protect them, in the same way that you would your house or car. This is where Dr Michael Kember, our Head of Research and Intellectual Property, and also a co-founder of Econic, steps in.

Mike determines the direction that our research team take in the development of new generations of catalysts and CO₂-containing polymeric products, not only in terms of the fundamental scientific developments, but also in their protection as Econic’s intellectual property. This task requires Mike and the team to have a forensic understanding of the current IP landscape to see where and how Econic fits in, and the directions  future technology innovations can take. “It is important that we protect our catalyst technologies at all stages of development.” Mike states, “This protection is crucial in establishing the place of our unique catalyst systems’ foothold in the market. It also allows our customers the freedom to use these technologies in their own business processes, opening up the advantages of CO₂-based polyols and materials.”

Econic’s IP portfolio is an ever-evolving, growing collection, currently consisting of more than 30 granted patents that span from polymerisation catalysts and the processes used in our technology, to enhanced polyurethane products made using CO₂-containing polyols. This portfolio will only continue to diversify as we develop new generations of our catalyst technologies for use in the polyols for the polyurethane market, and, looking ahead, to wider plastics markets. The potential is far-reaching and we are only just scratching the surface.

---

Get in touch to find out how we can help turn waste CO₂ into added value for your business.

Author, Anthea Blackburn

Industrial placements are invaluable – to both undergraduate students and companies. Students are offered the chance to use their theoretical knowledge in real world technical applications, as well as gain transferable skills in working in industry and, of course, being exposed to a plethora of new scientific concepts and skills. For companies, in particular SMEs like Econic, we have the opportunity to work with motivated students from a range of backgrounds who bring new skills and creative ideas to a growing technical team.

One of our current industrial placement students is Tom Lynch, who is spending the fourth year of his Chemical Engineering degree at Loughborough University as a member of our Process Development team. Guided by our process development experts, Tom has played an instrumental role in the development of our downstream polyol processing and the transfer of these processes from the lab to pilot scale, as well as the generation of valuable data to help our customers efficiently scale their use of our technologies. Tom has found working in Econic’s continually developing environment to be most rewarding: “The smaller team size means that I’ve had the opportunities for more responsibilities and opportunities than those of my classmates who work at much larger companies, especially since I have been able to work on projects in both the lab and at the Customer Demonstration Facility.”

As we move closer to the commercialisation of our catalyst technologies, the downstream process development and transfer of our systems from the lab to plant scales are a vital step in helping our customers to realise the full potential of incorporating waste CO₂ into their polyol and downstream plastics applications.

---

Get in touch to find out how we can help turn waste CO₂ into added value for your business.

Author, Anthea Blackburn

It has been a year since we opened the doors to our customer demonstration facility in Runcorn – the very first of its kind in the UK – to demonstrate how our pioneering catalyst technology can create polyols using waste CO₂. It would be safe to say that, in this time, a fantastic buzz has sprung up around the plant, not just from our fellow members of The Heath, but from across the plastics industry.

So far, we’ve had visits from 60 leading global companies within the polyurethane industry, as well as Andy Burnham and Steve Rotherham, the Metro Mayors of Manchester and Liverpool. The team of 7 at the facility has been busy producing polyol samples for all of the interested parties, who are testing the added value that our technology will incorporate into their own downstream polyurethane applications – everything from CO₂-based insulation foams, to coatings and elastomers.

Over the course of the year, activity at the plant has helped our pioneering catalyst technology move out of the lab and onto the factory floor, demonstrating the huge economic and positive potential of CO₂ for manufacturers.

Importantly for polyurethane producers, our facility uses a conventional reactor design and widely-available downstream technology, which shows just how readily existing plants can be retrofitted to use our catalyst. But unlike existing plants, our facility enables manufacturers to create CO₂-containing polyols at lower pressures and temperatures, which not only allows for much safer operation, but also leads to significant cost savings. Producing everyday goods from CO₂ may have once sounded like science fiction, but our facility has demonstrated that it is now science fact.

In the coming months, the facility will continue to fire on all cylinders. We look forward to welcoming more customers to the facility to further demonstrate the economic, environmental and product potential of our catalyst technology and how easily the use of waste CO₂ as a raw material can be adopted, and its advantages realised by the polyurethane industry.

Happy birthday, customer demonstration facility! Here’s to another fantastic year ahead.

---

Get in touch to learn more about our Customer Demonstration Facility and to find out how we can help turn waste CO₂ into added value for your business.

Author, Anthea Blackburn

Gemma is one of our most recent additions to the Econic team, having studied at Imperial College London and the University of Oxford and completing her PhD studies in 2018. Her graduate research focussed on the development of catalysts for copolymerisation processes and studying their mechanistic pathways. Being able to apply her analytical skills and to draw on her experience in reaction kinetics is now proving invaluable to her development and she has quickly become a great addition to our Process Development team.

The transition from academic to industrial research has provided Gemma with an interesting challenge, but the rewards that accompany working in a fast-paced and innovative young company far outstrip the challenges. “Working for a pioneering company like Econic with a creative and motivated team has not only enabled me to apply my skills to address a critical global problem, but also to see tangible results and process improvements quickly. Using state of the art equipment allows me to optimise our cutting-edge catalyst technology’s conditions and develop the best process for our customers. Every day is different with a new challenge to tackle, as we develop our technology to reach its full potential.”

As interest grows in the benefits that our catalyst technologies and waste CO₂ can bring to the polyol industry, the Process Development team are instrumental to the optimisation of polyol synthesis and processing from laboratory to pilot scale. In addition to supporting our customers in the roll out of our catalyst technologies and processes, they are also key to the development of the next generations of processes that our catalyst technologies can enable at industrially relevant temperatures and pressures, as we realise the value and endless potential of waste CO₂.

---

Get in touch to find out how we can help turn waste CO₂ into added value for your business.

Author, Anthea Blackburn

Mark joined Econic in 2015 to support Econic’s Application Development team, who focus on demonstrating the product potential that polyols made using Econic’s innovative catalyst technologies can offer to the polyurethane industry. When asked about what he enjoys most about working at Econic, Mark says, “Being able to witness the progress from what is a great laboratory idea, through its scale up, and the realisation of its potential in real world applications, is the most exciting thing about working at Econic. Being able to produce products which not only incorporate sizable quantities of CO₂ but also benefit from its inclusion is a very satisfying role!”

One such application benefit can be found in rigid PIR foams, a discovery that Mark recently shared at the UTECH conference in Maastricht. PIR foams prepared from polyols using Econic’s tunable catalyst technology offer significant advantages over conventional polyols, including:

–  Improved viscosity over polyester polyols
–  Enhanced fire resistance
–  Enhanced miscibility with blowing agents for lower density foams

Clearly, the potential that Econic’s technology can offer to PIR foams used in building insulation are notable, and Mark comments “we hope to help manufacturers improve the safety and longevity of their products, in addition to speeding up the manufacturing process and lowering costs.”

Further developments in this work will be shared later this year from October 1-3 at the 61st annual Polyurethanes Technical Conference in Atlanta, GA.

---

For more information on Econic or to inquire about our catalyst technologies, please contact:
Richard French, Business Development Director on +44 1625 238 645

Author, Anthea Blackburn

Clean-tech pioneer Econic Technologies has opened a first-of-its-kind plant in the UK to demonstrate to customers how its innovative catalyst technologies can convert CO₂ into polyols, which can then be used to make more sustainable polyurethanes for use in products such as automobiles, bedding and footwear.

The new plant is located in Runcorn, at The Heath, one of the UK’s leading independently-owned business and technical parks. It comprises all elements of the production process, integrated from reaction through to final product treatment, in a bespoke industrial unit. Opening its new plant at The Heath demonstrates Econic Technologies’ long term commitment to the North West following its relocation from London to Cheshire in 2017, with the company adding 12 new jobs across its two Cheshire locations since the move.

The new demonstration plant is an exciting step forward in Econic Technologies’ journey to help manufacturers unlock the positive potential of waste CO_2.  Until now, the creation of polyols from CO₂ has been performed in plants at high-pressures and temperatures. Thanks to its new tunable catalyst technology, Econic Technologies’ plant will be able to produce samples of CO₂-based polyols at lower, industrially relevant temperatures and pressures.

The launch of the plant comes just weeks after Econic announced that they had closed a major founding round which saw climate investment group OGCI Ventures coming on board alongside existing investors. As well as private capital investment, the demonstration plant has also received substantial European support through a Horizon 2020 SME Award. Rulande Rutgers, Head of Process and Product Engineering at Econic Technologies explains: “Securing such highly competitive public funding has been an important vote of confidence for Econic Technologies, and is allowing the company to accelerate development pace. Using some of this funding for the new demonstration plant is one way it is helping turn the potential of our catalysts into reality.”

Rowena Sellens, CEO of Econic Technologies, commented: “The demonstration plant is essential to helping our pioneering catalyst technologies develop as they move out of the lab and into the factory. As a company, we want to help drive the market adoption of polyols and our new plant provides an opportunity for us to encourage significant uptake in the industry. The interest from polyol manufacturers and downstream polyol users in the plant has been overwhelming already. We are extremely confident that once we start demonstrating what our technology can do, we will help catalyse a transformation in attitude when it comes to the positive potential of carbon.”

Econic Technologies’ catalysts enable manufacturers to reuse waste CO₂, by allowing it to be incorporated as a feedstock, which offers not only a sustainable benefit by reducing the reliance on fossil fuels but also an economical benefit by enhancing margins. The company hopes that by 2027, 30% of all polyol production will take place using Econic’s catalyst technologies, which could save 3.5 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions each year – the equivalent to taking two million cars off the road.

---

For further information, please contact:
Alex Kane, Farrer Kane: +44 (0) 20 7415 7154 | alex@farrerkane.com
Max Jewell, Farrer Kane: +44 (0) 20 7415 7154 | maxjewell@farrerkane.com

For more information on Econic or to inquire about our catalyst technologies, please contact:
Richard French, Business Development Director Econic Technologies | +44 1625 238 645

 

Author, Anthea Blackburn