About Us

• Jan - Jun 2011

• Jul 2011

The Start-up Promotion Centre is a service promoted by the Foundation for the Lugano Faculties of USI, in collaboration with USI and SUPSI, with the aim of providing assistance to Swiss and foreign graduates and, in particular, to those who intend to start a business in the Canton Ticino.

• Apr 2012

After the technology validation, we were able to enhance the process and move from batches to a continuous process, as at the industrial scale this can allow a higher productivity and even shorter cycle time. At lab scale we are still using a batch process, as the main goal is to demonstrate we have no problem treating "exotic" materials (e.g. polycotton, polyesther-PU blends, opaque and colored bottles, etc.) on top of all the materials already reuse via mechanical recycling.

• Jul 2012

• Apr 2014

We were awarded with CTI label. CTI Start-up enables creative entrepreneurs to realize their innovative business ideas quickly and professionally. Through a three-phase, firmly guided process lasting 6 to 24 months, a dedicated expert will help the venture’s project evolve sufficiently to apply for the CTI Start-up Label. The Start-up Label is a seal of quality, a certificate of achievement, and recognition of credibility and readiness for sustainable growth. It is awarded by the CTI Certification Board that is composed of seasoned entrepreneurs and experts.

• Jun 2014

Since 2005 Cleantech Open (CTO) has trained over 1600 early-stage clean technology start-up entrepreneurs through its annual business accelerator. In 2014 we were between European finalist.

• Mar 2015

The aim of the project was to develop software and hardware tools that could help improve the overall performance from process plant till industrial cluster levels, by optimizing the consumption (and, if possible, re-use) of its main resources: water, thermal energy, electricity, raw materials, waste, etc. The project thus promoted mutual interaction of diverse industries, also among different sectors, for beneficial reuse of flows resulting in a more resource-efficient production at network level, and in fewer adverse environmental impacts. ISTEPS activities mainly focused on: the definition of business models fostering industrial symbiosis the development of a sustainability-based decision support tool for supporting the implementation of the new symbiotic business model.

• Apr 2017

DEMETO proposed a highly innovative approach to the Process Intensification of the chemical recycling reaction (de-polymerization) of PET plastic waste. The adoption of microwave radiations as energetic catalyser allowed DEMETO to reduce reaction time and the complexity of the purification steps of PTA, while increasing productivity through a continuous process (instead of the batch ones typical of the industrial state-of-the-art).

• Dec 2018

The European Commission has awarded Europe's most promising digital innovations emerging from EU funded research and innovation projects. Gr3n from Switzerland won the 2018 Innovation Radar Prize for for their breakthrough technology for ‘upcycling’ PET / polyester. The awards ceremony took place at the European Commission's ICT 2018 in Vienna, Austria on 6 December (link).

• Feb 2019

Chemical Recycling Europe (ChemRecEurope) was established in 2019 to promote and implement the innovative solutions that the chemical recycling of plastic waste offers to benefit our economy and society. ChemRecEurope represents the interest of the European chemical recycling industry towards the public and European institutions. Chemical recycling technologies play a decisive role in closing the loop and supporting the transition towards a more sustainable and circular economy in Europe.

• Aug 2021

The demo plant is located in Chieti, in the centre of Italy, and it is part of the Parco Scientifico e Tecnologico d’Abruzzo. This plant is just a reduced scale of what a 30K Tons/year gr3n industrial plant will be like and will provide us the opportunity to show how the process is working, but also to test the whole plant in every single part. In the demo plant all the results obtained with the pilot plant in terms of process improvements, are already introduced, to have fossil fuel like monomers.

• Aug 2021

The R&D Hub is the place where we run all the experiments before the upscaling. This site has a fully equipped lab for testing and characterization, and the pilot plant, where we can depolymerize and purify 10 kg batches.