Ohio-based Alterra Energy has granted additional chemical recycling technology rights to Houston’s Abundia Global Impact Group, augmenting a 2021 agreement between the two companies.
The most recent agreement gives Abundia, formerly known as Houston American Energy Corp., rights to use Alterra’s process to develop and operate two more plastics recycling sites in the US, in addition to the four sites in Europe and the UK and one other in the US from the previous agreement.
In 2021, Abundia said it planned to develop its first site in the UK, with an initial capacity of 40,000 metric tons/year of discarded plastic by the second half of 2022. However, in November 2025, third-quarter financial results noted the acquisition of a 25-acre site at the Cedar Port industrial park in Baytown, Texas, near Houston, and in August, Abundia announced it would break ground there in Q4 2025 for its “first plastics recycling plant.” The Abundia website adds that the Texas project “integrates waste-to-fuel operations” along with a research and development center.
According to an Abundia investor presentation, the company converts “waste plastics and biomass into high-value drop-in fuels and recycled chemical feedstocks.” In an explanation of feedstocks, Abundia says it employs “hard-to-recycle plastics including mixed streams and materials containing up to ~15% contaminants and 5% PVC” to make crude plastics pyrolysis oil “suitable for blending or upgrading.”
In addition, the company notes use of pyrolysis to turn biomass residue into marine fuels and blending for industrial applications, both of which have lower quality specifications than vehicle fuels and chemical feedstocks.
In a press release, Abundia CEO Ed Gillespie said, “With each additional site, we have the potential to convert up to 160,000 tons of waste plastic per year to approximately 105,000 tons of high-value renewable fuel and chemical product.”
At time of publication, Abundia had not yet responded to a request for comment.
Last year chemical majors LyondellBasell and Chevron Phillips, along with Finnish oil refiner Neste, invested in Alterra. In 2023 Alterra licensed its technology to Freepoint Eco-Systems, which this year delivered its first batch of pyrolysis oil from its plant in Hebron, Ohio, to Shell’s refinery in Norco, Louisiana.
In August 2025, Alterra notified leadership in the Pennsylvania township of Sugarloaf that it was canceling its plan for a chemical recycling plant there, due to changes in terms for a potential site, but would continue its search for a suitable site in the state.
During a June panel discussion in Colorado, Alterra’s Head of Public Affairs Omar Terrie fielded questions about whether chemical recycling should count as recycling. At that time, Terrie said he agrees that plastics-to-fuel shouldn’t be considered recycling, but rather an “alternative use.”
Last week, two House Republicans introduced legislation to classify chemical recycling as manufacturing processes rather than waste management, a distinction that would reduce environmental regulations and help accelerate development of facilities.
