DOPS Recycling Technologies Raises €5 Million for Waste Recycling Technology
DOPS Recycling Technologies has raised €5 million to further develop its groundbreaking Direct Carbon Immobilization (DCI™) technology. This innovative process converts waste into valuable raw materials without significant CO₂ emissions. The SEED investment round was led by the Rotterdam Energy Transition Fund, ROM InWest, the North Holland Innovation Fund, Init Power, CarbonFix, and Alphatron.
Every year, approximately eight million tons of waste are incinerated in the Netherlands, releasing an equal amount of CO₂ emissions and leading to the loss of valuable materials. DOPS Recycling Technologies offers a revolutionary solution with its Direct Carbon Immobilization (DCI™) technology, enabling the recovery of primary raw materials from waste without significant CO₂ emissions. For many waste streams, no sustainable processing method currently exists. DOPS employs advanced refractory materials and efficient heat recovery, making the system economically viable even at low volumes.
Moreover, the technology can process various waste streams, which is highly needed in a circular economy. Through DOPS technology, these waste streams can be converted into biofuels, which are essential for decarbonizing energy-intensive industries and the transport sector.
Recycling Waste Without CO₂ Emissions
With DOPS’s DCI™ technique, complex waste streams and biomass are heated up to 1,000 degrees Celsius in an oxygen-free reactor. This process breaks down hydrocarbons into their basic elements: carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The DOPS technology makes it possible to convert over ninety percent of waste—waste that would otherwise be incinerated or landfilled—into new raw materials such as syngas, carbon (biochar or activated carbon), and other easily separable solid materials. Syngas plays a crucial role in the energy transition and is used as an industrial heat source and as a building block for methanol and sustainable fuels, among other applications.
DOPS’s technology is a platform technology—an essential enabler for transformative change. It paves the way for further development of the circular economy.
Michiel Spits, CEO of DOPS Recycling Technologies, states:
“Our technology ensures that waste is not the end, but the beginning of new, valuable resources. Thanks to this investment, we can scale up and contribute to the energy transition and a circular economy where reuse and efficient energy use become the norm.”
With this investment, DOPS will build a modular unit (M-DCI) to test the full system. This is expected to lead to a final investment decision for the first full-scale plant with customers.
Jesse In ’t Velt, Senior Investment Manager at the Rotterdam Energy Transition Fund, on behalf of the investors: “The transition to sustainable energy and a circular economy requires affordable green molecules that can compete with fossil resources for the industry and chemical sectors, along with more sustainable alternatives to waste incineration. With their robust and efficient gasification technology, DOPS transforms existing residual streams into valuable chemical building blocks while drastically reducing CO₂ emissions.”
“The DOPS team has the expertise and experience to scale this innovation and future-proof existing value chains. We look forward to working with the management and this group of impact investors.”
Support from the Start
Since its founding in 2021, DOPS received a voucher from the Energy & Climate innovation program and was one of the participants in the 2023/2024 Green Chemistry Accelerator (GCA) program. This program was established with Invest-NL and the Regional Development Agencies (ROMs) to help startups scale into mature businesses. It enables them to build pilot plants, enter the market, and ultimately produce thousands of tons of recycled or biobased raw materials.
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