Waste plastic to hydrogen facility in Ireland

Hydrogen Utopia International PLC has agreed with Trifol Resources Limited (TRL) in the Republic of Ireland which it expects will lead to its first operational full-scale waste plastic to hydrogen facility in Europe.

The agreement encompasses a suitable site in an EU Just Transition Fund region, potential access to an investment-grade plastic feedstock supplier and the potential to agree on offtake for the facility’s anticipated hydrogen and syngas outputs with a substantial customer whose covenant would be regarded as of very high quality.

As part of the agreement, HUI will invest €500,000 in TRL, a company in Co. Tipperary, Ireland, in the Irish Midlands, with patented waste plastic to wax technologies that process plastic feedstock using an innovative pyrolysis process under low pressure to transform post-consumer plastic into high-grade new slack wax and a fuel.

The wax can be used in various applications such as rust proofing, moisture proofing, polishes and emulsions and is used around the world. HUI’s hydrogen production process uses plastics pyrolysis, and the parties believe that the investment offers potential synergies and opportunities for both companies.

TRL occupies a site in Co. Tipperary, Ireland, comprises approximately 2.64 hectares (c.6.5 acres) which is held on a long lease, with an option for the tenant to acquire the freehold. The site was a former railway locomotive repair shop and therefore has the utilities, including a potential 3MW power supply, to get a facility operating with the minimum delay.

It is also sufficiently large to accommodate both a HUI waste plastic to hydrogen facility and the operation of TRL’s business. TRL’s landlord has formally agreed that it would consent to grant a sub-lease of the site to HUI. The site has planning permission for TRL’s plastic to wax pyrolysis business. HUI will apply for any necessary regulatory permissions required for its facility.

HUI and TRL have had extensive discussions regarding the site, the proposed HUI facility and TRL’s business, including discussions with TRL’s landlord. HUI has had preliminary meetings with a potential investment-grade waste plastic supplier that could provide all of the feedstock necessary to run a HUI facility and a substantial potential customer that could utilise the facility’s anticipated hydrogen and syngas output and whose covenant would be regarded as of very high quality. HUI anticipates that this could lead to long term supply and offtake agreements at a suitable juncture.

Pursuant to the agreement, HUI has agreed to subscribe to €500,000 for new shares in TRL, which will give it a minimum equity stake of 3.33% in TRL on a fully diluted basis and a seat on TRL’s board.

HUI is in discussions with a third party about a joint venture to build the HUI facility in Ireland. It has also had indications of funding support for the shorter term funds likely to be required to move the project in Ireland forward.

Aleksandra Binkowska, CEO of HUI, commented, “My biggest ambition was to expand our plastic waste to hydrogen technology to as many European markets as possible, with the additional goal of delivering our first facility in the shortest possible time. Partnership with Trifol Resources in Ireland is an ideal stepping stone in turning this ambition and that goal into a reality. Trifol’s motto ‘Giving Old Plastic A New Future’ and its ethos certainly chimes with Hydrogen Utopia’s own aims .”

Pat Alley, Chairman and Founder of Trifol Resources Limited, commented, “HUI’s investment is the initial part of a planned investment programme for the re-commissioning of Trifol’s plant at our newly established facility at Lanespark, Littleton, Co. Tipperary and the establishment of a centre of excellence for the global outreach of our patented technologies”.