NEWS & MILESTONES
What’s new at Re-Du
Awards, programs, events and progress as we take our technology from the lab toward a pilot plant.
Our process on video: from waste bottle to clear PET
A short film from our lab. Colored, dirty, mixed PET goes in, one catalyst breaks down only the PET, and we get 99% pure BHET, which we have turned back into new PET.
Watch the video →
Re-Du pitches at the Chemical Ventures Conference
Re-Du presented its catalytic platform at the Chemical Ventures Conference 2026, held August 11–12 at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering in Brooklyn.
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Pilot evaluation agreement with Flexcon, and a new CTO
Re-Du and Flexcon have entered into a pilot evaluation agreement to assess Re-Du's processing of PET-containing adhesive-backed waste from Flexcon's operations. Omar M. Basha, Ph.D., P.E., has joined Re-Du as Chief Technology Officer.
Read the teknovation.biz feature →
Re-Du presents at BlueSwell Demo Day
Re-Du completed SeaAhead's BlueSwell program as part of Cohort VI and presented its work turning plastic waste into valuable raw materials at Demo Day.
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Poster at the Plastics Recycling Conference, San Diego
Re-Du presented its single-catalyst, low-temperature process for PET waste, including bottles, multilayer film, carpet and textiles.
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LaunchTN Matching Fund award
Re-Du received a FY26 Launch Tennessee SBIR/STTR Matching Fund award from the State of Tennessee, supporting the next stage of scale-up here in Tennessee.
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First kilogram-scale trial on mixed bottles
Water, juice and soft-drink bottles collected from local recycling facilities were shredded for Re-Du's first kilogram-scale trial: mixed PET broken down to its building blocks.
Read more →Earlier milestones
How we got here
- Aug 2025From mentee to mentor at DOE Energy I-CorpsArif returned to the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy I-Corps program as an industry mentor, after first taking part as an entrepreneurial lead in Cohort 15.
- Jun 2025Innovation Crossroads graduate, LEEP Demo DayArif completed Innovation Crossroads at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, part of DOE's Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program, and took part in LEEP Demo Day in Berkeley.
- 2024R&D 100 AwardThe plastic-deconstruction technology developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and licensed to Re-Du, won a 2024 R&D 100 Award, which recognizes the year's top 100 technologies.
- 2024DOE Technology Commercialization Fund project with ORNLRe-Du was selected to work with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to mature and scale up the process under DOE's Technology Commercialization Fund.
- 2023Re-Du launches and joins Innovation CrossroadsRe-Du was founded and selected for Cohort 7 of Innovation Crossroads at ORNL, together with the Spark Cleantech Accelerator at the UT Research Park.
- 2023ORNL Technology Innovation ShowcaseThe technology was presented to industry at Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Technology Innovation Showcase.
- 2022–2023DOE Energy I-Corps, Cohort 15The team completed DOE Energy I-Corps and interviewed about 100 potential customers and partners. ORNL also selected the technology for its Technology Innovation Program.