CONSHOHOCKEN, PA — Reju has opened its first dedicated North American research and development center in Pennsylvania, consolidating its core research operations as the textile recycling company moves to commercialize chemical recycling technology for polyester waste.
The facility, located within Technip Energies’ Advanced Materials and Catalysts research center in Conshohocken, will support development of the company’s textile-to-textile recycling processes and technologies intended for deployment at future commercial recycling facilities, the company said.
The opening also marks the relocation of Reju’s primary research team from IBM’s Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California, where the company’s VolCat depolymerization technology was originally developed. The chemical recycling process breaks polyester into reusable raw materials that can be reintroduced into textile manufacturing.
The research center will support work ranging from early-stage feasibility studies to kilo-scale production. According to the company, research will focus on polyester recycling, mixed-fabric processing and additional chemical recycling pathways intended to improve textile circularity.
By operating within Technip Energies’ existing research infrastructure, Reju gains access to expertise in catalysis, process development, technology integration and industrial-scale manufacturing, capabilities the company expects to use as it advances toward commercial deployment.
“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,” Gregory Breyta, Reju’s director of research and development, said.
The Pennsylvania facility becomes part of Reju’s expanding international development network. The company has established its first textile-to-textile Regeneration Hub in Frankfurt, Germany, and previously identified future commercial facilities in Sittard, the Netherlands; Lacq, France; and Rochester, New York.
The company indicated the research center will validate technologies for use across those planned Regeneration Hubs as it seeks to build a closed-loop system for converting discarded textiles into recycled raw materials.
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