Paris-based textile-to-textile regeneration company Reju has opened its first research and development facility in the United States. Located within engineering and construction firm Technip Energies’ advanced materials and catalysts research center in Conshohocken, Pa., the lab is designed to allow Reju to accelerate the deployment of its recycling technologies to develop circular solutions.
Reju’s core research team previously operating in IBM’s Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif., will relocate to the Pennsylvania location to work on the company’s Volcat depolymerization technology. That process uses a catalytic chemical recycling method to break down polyester into reusable raw materials and was first developed at the San Jose lab.
The Pennsylvania facility will focus on the full development process for Reju’s recycling technologies, from early-stage feasibility to kilo-scale production. The center will carry out a number of functions, including polyester recycling, mixed-fabric solutions and new circular chemistry pathways, which will allow Reju to accelerate the path from concept to industrial reality for its recycling technologies intended for use at future regeneration hubs.
Reju chose the location within Technip Energies’ center because it allows the recycler to tap into the technology and engineering firm’s decades of expertise in catalysis, process development, technology integration and industrial scaling. The company operates in more than 35 countries working in liquefied natural gas, hydrogen, ethylene, sustainable chemistry and CO2 management to help develop the circularity and decarbonization markets.
This new facility joins Reju’s growing global presence, which includes its first textile-to-textile Regeneration Hub in Frankfurt, Germany, as well as future hubs in the works in Sittard, Netherlands; Lacq, France; and Rochester, New York. Earlier this year, Reju secured a 135 million euro (approximately $156 million) investment for its Netherlands Regeneration Hub from the Netherlands’ Nationale Investeringsregeling Klimaatprojecten Industrie (NIKI) program.
“Together, these facilities form a replicable global circular infrastructure designed to turn today’s textile waste into tomorrow’s raw materials,” said Gregory Breyta, Reju’s director of research and development. “I am excited to be joining such an innovative company and to be part of the team moving the technology towards industrialization and supporting the infrastructure for true post-consumer textile-to-textile recycling at scale.”
Reju’s new facility announcement comes just a week after the recycler joined Recycling Europe’s textiles division. The partnership with Recycling Europe will offer Reju support in its efforts to scale textile-to-textile recycling in Europe and elsewhere.
Reju said the establishment of its research and development center in Pennsylvania plays a critical role in its broader strategy to build and scale a closed-loop recycling ecosystem that converts discarded apparel and textiles into new products.
