E4S Awards - Novoloop
1 Oct 2025
Project: Upcycled TPU elastomers
With its project, titled World’s first chemically upcycled thermoplastic polyurethane elastomers (TPU), Novoloop has ranked highly in the E4S Top 10 table.
The Menlo Park, California-based start-up has now attracted significant investment to help it establish an industrial-scale production unit – based on its patented ATOD (accelerated thermal oxidative decomposition) process for chemically recycling polyethylene waste.
The recycling technology is said to offer a carbon footprint reduction of up to 91% when compared to the conventional process of producing adipic acid feedstock.
The US venture capital-backed start-up is focused on chemically recycling polyethylene waste into performance materials, particularly a recently launched thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU).
TPUs produced via Novoloop’s patented ATOD (accelerated thermal oxidative decomposition) process have already found a number of promising applications including the newest On running shoe, branded Cloudprime.
As the E4S expert panel commented: “This project tackles one of the largest thermoplastics waste streams, and transforms it into a new polymer to produce a high-quality products… giving a new valuable outlet for PE waste.”
Novoloop has commissioned a demo facility in Surat, India, under a collaboration with chemicals maker Aether Industries.
The sustainable TPU materials have already has already found a number of promising applications: attracting commercial interest from the likes of sportswear major On.
In another update, the Menlo Park-based company announced the completion of an €18-million investment funding round, led by investment vehicle Taranis, to accelerate the commercial scale-up of its upcycling technology.
According to the company, the new funding brings Novoloop’s total capital raised to over $50 million and will support the launch of key customer programmes.
Novoloop has recently achieved continuous operation at the demo plant in India and progressed strategic partnerships (recent ERJ report) with “world-leading polyurethane producers in China.”
