We\u2019ve been talking to each of the award winners, and featuring one every day.\u00a0<\/strong>Today<\/b>\u00a0Tonnis Hooghoudt\u00a0What<\/b>\u00a0Awarded one of the\u00a0Blasts of 2016\u00a0Why<\/b>\u00a0Growing from startup to scale up in circular PET recycling with Ioniqa<\/p>\n These are the 9 High Tech Peak winners of\u00a02015<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n Tonnis in (slightly more than) 52 words<\/b><\/p>\n CEO of Ioniqa<\/a>, a company in Eindhoven that developed a breakthrough technology in circular recycling of PET plastics. Hooghoudt decided to leave his international career in the corporate world in 2009 to get startup Ioniqa off the ground. \u201cAn excellent opportunity to make my own contribution to the circular economy.”<\/p>\n Plastic bottles<\/b><\/p>\n PET is everywhere. You will it in water bottles and clothes, and carpets and packaging. Yet the recycling process of PET materials is still far from perfect. Worldwide, the bulk of plastic waste goes straight into the furnace or even disappears into the bottom of the ocean. A small amount is processed and reused, but, after being recycled a few times, the quality seriously deteriorates. After years of research, Ioniqa can recycle PET and convert it back into a \u2018high-quality\u2019 building block \u2013 one that\u00a0can be endlessly reused. \u201cIt\u2019s the missing puzzle piece in the circular PET recycling process,\u201d says Hooghoudt.<\/p>\n On the far right: a collection of PET waste materials. On the left: examples of PET waste recycled into\u00a0colorless raw material\u00a0(and reusable for new PET products)<\/em><\/p>\n Raw material<\/b><\/p>\n How does it work? In a number of steps the PET waste is broken down into colorless raw material for new PET products, such as a soda bottle, carpet or t-shirt. The recycled raw material is comparable to the quality and costs for oil-based new PET plastics. Hooghoudt calls it a \u201cgame changing technology\u201d.<\/p>\n Ioniqa researchers working in the lab<\/em><\/p>\n Scaling up<\/b><\/p>\n Initially, Ioniqa chemists developed a process to recycle small amounts of PETs in their lab at the TU\/e campus. \u201cNow we are applying this technology to larger amounts\u201d, Hooghoudt explains. “We successfully recycled 100 liter of PET waste in a chemical test site in Geleen last summer. \u201cOur next goal is to be able to recycle the quantities the market is demanding.” We\u2019re talking kilo-tons. “In 2017 I want to have our pilot plant up and running.\u201d A location where Ioniqa can recycle 10,000 ton of PET waste on a yearly base.<\/p>\n Team Ioniqa<\/em><\/p>\n Future<\/b><\/p>\n In November last year Ioniqa received the Herman Wijffels Innovation Award. Apart from the prize money of 30,000 euros, Hooghoudt sees the award as a confirmation that the company is on the right track. “With this technology we should also be able to recycle other plastics, and potentially also cotton and paper into high-quality raw materials\u201d, he explains. \u201cWe are now considering this next step.\u201d A future where we can\u00a0fully reuse waste material: \u201cIt means that we would suddenly be much less dependent on oil.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Recently the e52 High Tech Piek Awards were presented to nine people who made a significant contribution in the high tech arena (or from whom we expect great things in 2016). The award titles bespeak a holiday theme, with one \u201cPiek\u201d award (a typically Dutch Christmas tree-topper with a pointed shape), four \u201cStar\u201d awards, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1573,"featured_media":39624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3009],"tags":[4007,482,486,4283,484,3441,5041,5043,827,829,5045,2519],"location":[],"article_type":[],"serie":[],"archives":[],"internal_archives":[],"reboot-archive":[],"class_list":["post-43387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-startup","tag-circular-economy","tag-economy","tag-geen-categorie-en","tag-htp2015-en","tag-innovation","tag-ioniqa-en","tag-pet-recycling","tag-pet-waste","tag-start-ups","tag-technology","tag-tonnis-hooghoudt-en","tag-tue-en"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":{"subtitle":"","text_display_homepage":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"Renske Mehra","author_link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/author\/renskemehra\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Screen-Shot-2015-12-02-at-8.37.32-PM-1-300x201.png","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Start-ups<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Start-ups<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["circular economy<\/a>","economy<\/a>","Geen categorie<\/a>","htp2015<\/a>","innovation<\/a>","Ioniqa<\/a>","PET recycling<\/a>","PET waste<\/a>","start-ups<\/a>","technology<\/a>","Tonnis Hooghoudt<\/a>","TU\/e<\/a>"],"unlinked":["circular economy<\/span>","economy<\/span>","Geen categorie<\/span>","htp2015<\/span>","innovation<\/span>","Ioniqa<\/span>","PET recycling<\/span>","PET waste<\/span>","start-ups<\/span>","technology<\/span>","Tonnis Hooghoudt<\/span>","TU\/e<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 10 years ago","modified":"Updated 10 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on January 11, 2016","modified":"Updated on January 11, 2016"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on January 11, 2016 8:07 am","modified":"Updated on January 11, 2016 8:07 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1573"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43387"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=43387"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=43387"},{"taxonomy":"serie","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/serie?post=43387"},{"taxonomy":"archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/archives?post=43387"},{"taxonomy":"internal_archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal_archives?post=43387"},{"taxonomy":"reboot-archive","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reboot-archive?post=43387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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