NetScientific PLC (AIM:NSCI) portfolio company DeepTech Recycling's managing director and chief technology officer Marvine Besong recently spoke to Thomas Warner from Proactive about the company's groundbreaking work in plastic recycling.
Recently, DeepTech Recycling secured £1 million in funding, which Besong says will be used to consolidate the assets acquired from Recycling Technologies in December 2022 and to develop and commercialise their technology.
Thomas Warner (TW): Marvine, can you tell us just what it is that DeepTech Recycling is actually involved in?
Marvine Besong (MB): "We are currently engaged in a very exciting field. As you may know, plastic is ubiquitous; it's everywhere around us. This is due to the fantastic properties that plastic offers to our society.
“Our focus is on addressing what happens to plastic at the end of its lifecycle. A major issue with plastic is its omnipresence and continuous use, coupled with an increasing rate of production. Yet, at the end of its life, the recycling rate for plastic is very low- only 12% of plastic is recycled globally. This means a large amount of plastic either gets incinerated, landfilled, or, sadly, ends up polluting our environment.
“Our goal is to combat this inefficiency in resource utilisation. We are working on taking end-of-life plastic and converting it into something that can either be used to make more plastic or to produce chemicals. Essentially, our aim is to facilitate a circular economy for plastics."
TW: The news from Friday Marvine was that you've raised that £1 million so far. Tell us what you’re going to do with the money.
MB: "Over the past year, since NetScientific acquired the assets from the administrators of Recycling Technologies, our team has been diligently working. Our focus during this year has been on consolidating all the acquired assets from Recycling Technologies. Additionally, we've been developing a business plan aimed at effectively commercializing the technology. This plan is now fully developed.
“The funding we've received enables us to transform this plan into reality. It also allows us to work closely with our customers to develop projects at a commercial or economic scale. Furthermore, a portion of this funding will be used to establish our new operating base. This will include our laboratories and bench-scale facilities, essential for our ongoing work."
TW: One of the advantages of what you're trying to build is that it's relatively small, I say relatively because most things, anything to do with petrochemicals are absolutely enormous, but you're trying to build something which can fit into even something as small as a plastic recycling facility?
MB: "Absolutely. We believe that addressing the problem as close to the consumer as possible is highly efficient. From your household, all waste, including plastic, goes to a Material Recycling Facility (MRF). We see these facilities as the ideal locations to install our recycling units. This way, plastic can be converted into a liquid form right at the source, before being transported elsewhere.
For example, in a typical town like Swindon where I am, there's a small MRF or sorting centre. Our goal is to collaborate with these sorting centres to set up our recycling facilities. Essentially, we view ourselves not just as recyclers but also as a logistics company. We aim to transform materials like plastic, which are low-density and don't transport well, into a liquid form that is much more efficient for transportation. This liquid can then be easily sent to other locations for further processing."
TW: I'm just going to round things off by asking where your personal focus is day to day, at the moment?
MB: "Currently, my daily focus is primarily on business development. I am also concentrating on the future of our technology, exploring how we can best serve our customers with it. However, my main priority right now is working directly with customers and developing projects alongside them. The key objective is to bring our technology to a commercial scale. That's where our focus lies.
We operate with a customer-centric model, and our aim is to collaborate closely with our customers to reach the stage of a commercial scale demonstrator."