Agilyx Corp. (Tigard, Ore.), a wholly owned subsidiary of Agilyx AS and Kumho Petrochemical (Seoul, South Korea), a global leader in the manufacture of synthetic rubber, have announced a collaboration to explore the development and construction of a chemical recycling project in South Korea.
“We’re very interested in recycling of post-use plastics, while focusing on utilizing post-use polystyrene into the pure styrene,” stated Jong-Hoon Baek, CEO of Kumho Petrochemical. “Collaboration with Agilyx will give Kumho Petrochemical an opportunity of proposing new line of eco-SSBR products to most of our customers who prefer sustainable products.”
“We are pleased to partner with Kumho Petrochemical to explore this project and expand the market for post-use recycled polystyrene into new, high growth and technically demanding applications such as this,” stated Tim Stedman, CEO of Agilyx. “The potential to use waste plastic to create high performance SSBR for the manufacture of tires is a very exciting example of our technology’s ability to create a new life for plastic.”
The project will use Agilyx unique and novel chemical recycling technology to produce pure styrene from post-use polystyrene. This would be used as a virgin equivalent raw material to produce solution styrene-butadiene rubber (SSBR), a key component for the manufacture of tires, including for the large volume, high-performance tire segment. The project would mark an exciting new application of Agilyx’s polystyrene depolymerization technology, introducing a new pathway for polystyrene into SSBR.