Backing for Dutch thermal analysis tech

Dutch start-up Veridis has secured funds from two investors to help bring its plastics recycling technology to market.

Its Madscan product provides detailed information on large samples of recycled plastics. Veridis will use the financial backing to launch customer pilots in the Netherlands and Germany in the next two years.

Plastic ‘fingerprint‘

The innovative approach is based on thermal analysis technology. Essentially, it measures the different ways plastic types melt and crystallise again.

Company founder Nigel Visser explains that every type of plastic has a unique thermal ‘fingerprint’. Madscan measures these fingerprints by tracking thermal changes when a sample of recycled plastic is heated and cooled. This way, recyclers can tell exactly which types of plastics are in each batch.

Scaling up

Veridis says it is currently only possible to measure samples of 20-50 milligrams at a time, representing more than a tonne of material. Madscan already samples up to 30 grams (a 10 000x sample size increase). Samples will ‘soon’ be scaled up to between 50 and 500 grams (a 100 000x increase).

This represents a ‘massive leap in scalability’, according to Visser. It also enables thorough composition and quality analysis on a large and representative scale.

In the medium term, Veridis envisions a Europe-wide rollout of its solution. The tech company believes this will help standardise quality control for EU plastic recycling.