The good news is piling up for GreeNovel, which specializes in recycling contaminated and non-recyclable plastics. After winning the ICIS Innovations Awards 2022 for the chemical industry earlier this fall in London, the young shoot founded in 2019 has just announced the construction in 2023 of a pilot plant in Granby.
Currently established in the premises of the Center for Innovation and Industrial Technologies of Granby (CITIG), GreeNovel is the creation of Mai Attia and Sherif Farag. For more than 20 years, the two chemical engineering doctoral students worked in research and development, accumulating hundreds of scientific papers. They also have to their credit a dozen patents oriented towards the electrification of recycling processes, its extraction and its purification.
The current GreeNovel, however, is a far cry from their original idea. “What they wanted to do was export the recycled plastic from Canada to the Middle East. The profitability was not there because the cost of recycling was practically the same as that of virgin plastic due to the price of oil at that time,” explains Emir Tsabet, senior research and development expert for GreeNovel. .
Respond to current challenges
Not wanting to drop the recycling aspect, the two doctoral students then turned to solutions to reduce the cost of treatment. Sherif Farag explains why this issue was so important to them: “Plastic is a major issue for the planet, it’s everywhere. It is a source of enormous pollution which depletes natural resources. We think of the good of future generations. It’s a job for humanity, otherwise, what kind of planet are we going to leave them? »
In collaboration with the National Research Council Canada, the two researchers achieved their goal by using a microwave heating system that consumes much less energy. This innovation should be marketed in 2023.
The two scientists also had another goal: to eliminate the contaminants present in a lot of electronic waste. “Several of the products found in this type of waste are very harmful to human health and the environment. They require very expensive processing steps.
PHOTO CATHERINE LEFEBVRE, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Mai Attia, CEO of GreeNovel
We have managed to develop a technology that allows us to eliminate more than 150 elements, many of which are harmful, using a chemical agent that can completely regenerate itself. In addition, we manage to extract different metals that are mixed there such as gold, silver, copper, platinum, etc.
Mai Attia, CEO of GreeNovel
Eye-catching technologies
The two researchers estimate that their inventions would make it possible to eliminate 780,000 tonnes of materials that are harmful to health and the environment annually in Canada, to divert 232,000 tonnes of plastic destined for landfills or landfills, to give a second life to 542,000 tonnes of metals.
These innovations did not take long to attract many eyes. The two entrepreneurs have signed several contracts with other industrial players for carrying out study and feasibility projects. The decision to build a pilot plant follows the award of a contract with the federal government, which will have to close several of its data centers.
PHOTO CATHERINE LEFEBVRE, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Sherif Farag, Vice President of GreeNovel
“We will end up with tons of machines and servers that will have to be recycled. The contract with the federal government is a good start. At the start, we will be at 25% of our capacity, or 25 tonnes of plastic waste per day. We plan to reach 50% of our capacity by 2025,” says Sherif Farag.