Rotterdam – Dow is investing in Xcycle, an advanced recycling startup. It is one of five investors, along with storage specialist Vopak, the Dutch investment agency Invest-NL, and two financial institutions, ING and Polestar Capital. Dow is taking an equity stake.
The investment will support the construction of Xcycle’s first commercial-scale advanced recycling plant, which will be located in the Port of Rotterdam. It is expected to be up and running by Q4 2026, with an annual plastic waste processing capacity of 21kT/year.
Xcycle uses a low-temperature pyrolysis process turns difficult-to-recycle plastic waste into a pyrolysis oil. Dow will use this circular feedstock to make new plastics.
The facility’s modular layout will allow production to be scaled up or down to meet demand, Xcycle said. The company also plans to develop further recycling facilities elsewhere in the world, with larger reactor sizes that would increase a single plant’s capacity to 100kT/year.
“The performance and efficiency of Xycle’s technology strongly complements our increasingly diverse global portfolio of recycling solutions,” said Stephanie Kalil, commercial VP for EMEA at Dow Packaging & Specialty Plastics. “We believe that the robust financial backing and credibility of our consortium partners demonstrates the strength of the opportunity at hand to scale advanced recycling technologies; to address the plastic waste challenge and meet growing customer demand for circular products.”
