NextChem, the sustainable technology solutions arm of Maire Tecnimont S.p.A, has completed the deal announced in February with Biorenova to acquire that company’s proprietary continuous chemical recycling process known as CATC.
Biorenova transferred patents, assets, including a demonstration plant, and contracts related to CatC to MyRemono S.r.l., a newly established company in which NextChem has holds a controlling - 51% - stake.
The purchase price for NextChem’s 51% stake was €6.12 million, of which €4.12 million paid upfront and €2.0 million payable within 36 months subject to certain conditions. NextChem and Biorenova also executed a share capital increase of MyRemono for an amount of €2.2 million and have signed a shareholder loan agreement for an additional €2.0 million to be funded within 12 months in order to support the expected investments, including construction of the industrial plant.
As the owner of the CATC depolymerisation process, MyRemono plans to scale up and industrialise the technology.
CatC is a continuous chemical recycling process based on catalytic technology to recover monomers - building blocks for the plastic value chain - with ultra-high levels of purity from sorted plastic waste, particularly PMMA.
The first CatC technology demonstration plant, which has a processing capacity of approximately 1,600 tons of plastic waste per year, is already up and running in the Abruzzo region of central Italy. Monomer samples from the plant have been fully validated by prospective off-takers. The results achieved show that, with a conversion rate of approximately 95%, CatC provides a cost-effective, efficient and competitive alternative to other existing depolymerisation technologies for PMMA, as the obtained monomers can be used directly without any further treatment.
MyRemono has announced plans to build an industrial-scale plant using the technology with a processing capacity of up to approximately 5,000 tonnes per year. This company will take this facility into operation in the second half of 2025. It expects to launch the commercial activities related to licensing, process engineering and critical equipment supply at that same time.
Additionally, MyRemono intends to expand the application of CatC to other value-added plastics, including the depolymerisation of polystyrene, a widely used plastic with numerous industrial applications from food packaging to electronics and automotive, among others. A further optimisation of the technology could allow even the larger polyolefins market addressed.
This acquisition adds another important piece to the execution of Maire’s strategy, which has identified the expansion of the sustainable technological portfolio belonging to NextChem as a key growth driver in the next 10 years.
MyRemono’s revenues are expected to progressively grow starting from 2025 for a cumulated value of €30 million by 2028. After this ramp-up period, yearly revenues are expected to be in the €15-20 million range, with an EBITDA margin of approximately 40%.