Supporting New Recycling Technologies with Remarkable Energy

Kosmos Energy believes our work should go hand-in-hand with environmental protection. To put our words into action, we support initiatives that target environmental issues in our operating geographies. In the past, this has included mangrove restoration in Senegal and Suriname; coastal restoration in Louisiana; and land conservation in Texas. 

Our latest investment is in Remarkable Energy, a British start-up which aims to reduce waste plastic pollution using an innovative technology that recycles mixed waste plastics into high-value products more efficiently and at lower cost than existing methods. 

The Plastics Problem

The OECD’s first Global Plastics Outlook reports only 9% of annual waste plastic is recycled, in part because of the limited capacity and inefficiency of current recycling methods. With global demand for plastics expected to double to 1 billion metric tons per year by 2050, there is a clear imperative to identify more effective means of managing waste plastic.

Enter Remarkable Energy and their energy efficient, low-cost, high value Thermal Catalytic Technology (TCT) recycling unit.

The Technology

Remarkable uses a proprietary recycling process involving TCT to transform waste plastic into value-added energy products like circular-economy naphtha, feedstock for sustainable aviation fuel, and fuel for generating electricity. 

Unlike other current plastic recycling technologies, TCT is a highly efficient and flexible process that combines efficient gasification and catalyst chemistry to produce high-value energy products. TCT materially outperforms existing approaches like Pyrolysis and Incineration when it comes to construction and operating costs, produces significantly higher value products, and delivers more attractive economics.

“We started our journey when we saw that plastic is systemic to the environmental crisis. The gamechanger is adding value, to stop the polluting by economic incentive.” Remarkable Energy

Appropriate for large-scale sites and installation at existing waste facilities, the recycling units’ modular and transportable design also allows for them to be deployed at specific sites where the need for recycling is greatest. This reduces the high emissions and costs associated with transporting waste to the existing recycling plants, as well supports the creation of a local economy around waste plastic.

The icing on the cake: Remarkable’s recycling process uses its own renewable products to power operations. 

What’s Next

Remarkable’s pilot plant in the south of England processed 10kg of mixed plastics/ hour and consistently saw conversion rates of over 90%, including hard-to-recycle materials like composite plastic film. This feedstock flexibility allows the plant to generate different products at varying volumes, as well as enable the company to adopt multiple commercial strategies to maximize returns and mitigate risks for their business partners. 

In the last year, Remarkable completed a demonstration plant in Scotland that operates at 500kg mixed plastics/hour, and within the next two years is expecting to have a commercial plant operating at 1,000kg/hour. After that key milestone, Remarkable aspires to deploy their recycling technology around the globe. 

With Our Full Support

At Kosmos, we strive to support innovators and entrepreneurs designing solutions that contribute to a sustainable future. We made a minor equity investment in Remarkable Energy because we believe in their mission and their potential to change plastics recycling as we know it. In addition to seed funding, we are investing time and expertise to support Remarkable’s ability to scale up for commercial deployment. Members of our engineering, business development, and legal teams advise, coach and mentor Remarkable staff on technical and engineering matters, as well as downstream chemical business development. Kosmos plans to continue serving in a mentorship capacity as Remarkable gears up to enter the global market.