TechnologyRefining, petrochemicals and fertilisers
Reju opens US research centre for textile-to-textile recycling development
The Pennsylvania facility places Reju's research team within Technip Energies' existing materials and catalysts infrastructure.
- Event
- First published on EPC Feed
- Sources
- 1 listed below
- Reading time
- 2 min
Reju opened a dedicated North American research and development centre in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, the company announced through a Technip Energies release dated 1 July 2026. The facility is located within Technip Energies' Advanced Materials and Catalysts research site. It is intended to support textile-to-textile recycling technology development and the transition from laboratory work towards processes that can be deployed at larger industrial facilities.
The opening accompanies relocation of Reju's core research team from IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California. The release identifies Almaden as the place where the Volcat depolymerisation technology was first developed. Volcat uses catalytic chemical recycling to break polyester down into raw materials that can be reused. Moving the team places that research activity alongside Technip Energies' established capabilities in catalysis, process development, integration and industrial scale-up.
The new centre is intended to cover work from early feasibility studies through production at kilogram scale. Its research areas include polyester recycling, mixed-fabric solutions and additional circular chemistry pathways. The kilogram-scale description refers to development activity at the research facility, not the annual production capacity of a commercial regeneration plant. The announcement therefore documents an expansion of research infrastructure rather than a declaration that a new full-scale textile recycling factory has started production in Pennsylvania.
Reju says the facility will help develop and validate technologies for its future Regeneration Hubs. The company describes a wider infrastructure programme that includes Regeneration Hub Zero in Frankfurt and announced future hubs in Sittard, Lacq and Rochester, New York. Those locations are presented as context for the technology development network. Their mention does not mean that every announced hub had reached the same construction or operating stage on the date of the research-centre opening.
For process developers, the immediate significance is the connection between a specialised recycling team and an existing engineering research facility. The arrangement brings chemical development, process integration and scale-up expertise into one site to support subsequent industrial deployment. It also separates two different milestones: opening a research centre and bringing a commercial regeneration hub into operation. The July announcement confirms the former and describes how that research capacity is intended to support the company's broader textile recycling programme.
Sources
Spotted an error or have a primary source we should read? Send a correction.