PureCycle to go on $2 billion building spree

The polypropylene recycling firm PureCycle has achieved commercial-scale production at its plant in Ironton, Ohio, and raised $300 million in new capital from investors. Now executives say they are launching a $2 billion global expansion to establish plants on three continents by the end of the decade.PureCycle’s technology, originally licensed from Procter & Gamble, uses a supercritical-butane-based solvent to dissolve postconsumer polypropylene products like film, auto parts, and containers and purify the polymer to levels nearly matching virgin material.The company completed the Ohio plant in 2023 but hit operating difficulties on start-up that it now says it is resolving. In its most recent earnings announcement, the firm reported that the plant ran nearly 90% of the time during the first quarter, in which it also generated $1.4 million in revenue, the first revenues in the company’s history.PureCycle CEO Dustin Olson compares starting up new technologies to coming home to a dark house. “You wander around that dark room until you find the light switch, and before you find the light switch, you’re stubbing your toe and tripping and knocking over dishes, but you find the light switch and all of a sudden you realize exactly what you need to do,” he says. “Well, we just flipped the light switches on, and we’re ready to go.”The company says it will incorporate lessons from the Ironton start-up in the new facilities. The first is planned for Rayong, Thailand, on the site of IRPC, a refining and petrochemical affiliate of the Thai energy