BioBTX advances waste to aromatics

The Dutch start-up BioBTX says it could be producing aromatic compounds from waste plastics and biomaterials by late 2026 after raising more than €80 million (about $87 million) in funding. The company's plan is to build a facility in Groningen, the Netherlands, with the capacity to convert about 20,000 metric tons (t) of waste annually into compounds such as benzene, toluene, and xylenes. "If we can build this plant with €80 million, it will show that we can build bigger plants after that," says Peter J. Nieuwenhuizen, a bioindustry veteran who was involved in fundraising for the new plant. Future plants could process around 200,000 t of waste per year, he says. The feedstock for the first plant will be mostly postconsumer mixed plastic waste. BioBTX's technology consists of a pyrolysis step that vaporizes biomass and plastics into hydrocarbons and a catalytic step that uses a zeolite-based catalyst to convert