Stutt­gart — The Clima­te­Tech start-up Cyclize from Stutt­gart is leading the way with €4.75 million in seed capi­tal to initiate a revo­lu­tion in the chemi­cal indus­try. The aim: to replace fossil resour­ces through the inno­va­tive recy­cling of carbon from plas­tic waste and CO2. The finan­cing round is being led by UVC Part­ners. The capi­tal increase is comple­men­ted by High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF), Aurum Impact, Unter­neh­mer­TUM Funding for Inno­va­tors and busi­ness angels, inclu­ding Dr. Klaus Schä­fer, former CTO of Cove­s­tro, who will also be part of the Advi­sory Board of Cyclize.

Repla­cing fossil resources

The chemi­cal indus­try, once firmly ancho­red in the use of fossil resour­ces, must change in order to achieve the neces­sary climate targets. The carbon atoms contai­ned in natu­ral gas and coal are used to produce synthe­sis gas — a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydro­gen. This gas mixture is a basic buil­ding block of the chemi­cal indus­try and the start­ing point for products that surround us ever­y­where, such as plas­tics, foams, adhe­si­ves, paints and many more. Their produc­tion and inci­ne­ra­tion at the end of their life account for 15 percent of global indus­trial CO2 emis­si­ons. Other proces­ses, such as elec­tro­ly­sis or the use of carbon capture and storage (CCS), cannot meet the growing demand for CO2-neutral synthe­sis gas.

Cyclize offers a solu­tion here: a highly inno­va­tive, plasma-based process in which mixed plas­tic waste of all kinds is recy­cled to produce synthe­sis gas that easily compe­tes econo­mic­ally with fossil synthe­sis gas. Cyclize is thus setting pionee­ring stan­dards in the unri­val­led repla­ce­ment of fossil resources.

“With our process, we are sending an important signal for climate-neutral chemis­try. Our paten­ted Cyclize process enables chemi­cal compa­nies to remain compe­ti­tive despite rising energy prices in Europe. Cyclize plasma is not only the future of the chemi­cal indus­try — it is an inno­va­tor for the circu­lar economy: “Plas­tic waste beco­mes a real raw mate­rial with mone­tary value,” says Maike Lambarth, co-foun­­der and CEO of Cyclize.

Setting out for new markets, the net zero revolution

The move towards net-zero produc­tion is opening up new markets in Europe and Cyclize is paving the way for the chemi­cal indus­try through a low-thres­­hold trans­for­ma­tion. With the produc­tion of synthe­sis gas, the company is merely chan­ging the first step in a long value chain and substi­tu­ting the fossil carbon source. Thanks to the reten­tion of the follo­wing process steps, exis­ting assets can conti­nue to be used and produc­tion costs can be kept low.

With their solu­tion, they not only serve nume­rous chemi­cal segments that previously relied on fossil hydro­gen and synthe­sis gas, but also solve the global problem of recy­cling previously non-recy­clable plas­tic waste. Cyclize is an inno­va­tion pioneer that reso­lut­ely tack­les the global chal­lenges of our time.

Further deve­lo­p­ment of plasma technology