ExxonMobil joins Agilyx feedstock partnership

Chemical recycling firm Agilyx Corp. announced Feb. 25 that ExxonMobil Chemical Co. has joined its Cyclyx subsidiary, taking a 25 percent ownership stake in the feedstock management firm and joining as a founding member.

Tigard, Ore.-based Agilyx had announced in mid-2020 that it was forming Cyclyx as a way to make better use of the data Agilyx has collected around the composition and management of plastics waste since it started operations in 2004. It sees the effort addressing technical issues in recycling.

Terms of the equity stake were not disclosed. Agilyx retains the other 75 percent of Cyclyx and said it's looking for other partners for the subsidiary.

The companies said in a statement that Cyclyx will supply waste plastics to ExxonMobil's development projects in chemical, or advanced, recycling, as well as tap into ExxonMobil's technology expertise and its manufacturing network.

"Leveraging Agilyx's expertise in plastics recycling and the scale of partners like ExxonMobil, we aim to create a lasting and impactful change," Cyclyx CEO Joe Vaillancourt said.

When it formed Cyclyx, Agilyx said it would use artificial intelligence, machine learning and other tools it had developed in a research partnership with General Electric to study ways to boost plastic recycling rates and create new "recycling pathways."

In September, Agilyx's parent company, Agilyx AS in Oslo, Norway, had an initial public offering on the Merkur Market of the Oslo Stock Exchange, and said it had raised 300 million Norwegian krone ($35.4 million) in a private placement.