2018
Primary Resources
Dr. Jean-Philippe Laviolette headshot
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Dr. Jean-Philippe Laviolette

Engineering Manager, Pyrowave
The promising future of plastics in the 1950s, has been overtaken by the many detrimental environmental aspects: Over a billion tons of waste plastics have been discarded since 1950, and sales of new plastics exceed a trillion dollars worldwide each year - most being derived from fossil fuels. Plastics have infiltrated the food chain and are now estimated to exceed the mass of fish in the oceans. Net, we have enough plastic! Jocelyn led the Pyrowave team to develop the first commercial technology of its sort: a high power microwave depolymerization reactor producing the highest yields and best energy performance ever seen in the industry, enabling a high percentage of discarded plastics to be repurposed as brand new plastic. With version 3 of the machine now in operation, Pyrowave is now selling the world’s first recycled monomer to the largest companies in the world: The first time that a commercial technology can depolymerize plastics after their use and return it back into virgin product. To state the obvious… this is huge!