WATERLOO, Ontario (Feb. 9, 2010)—A start-up company that plans to devulcanize recycled tire rubber has received $750,000 in financing from First Leaside Visions II Limited Partnership, a venture capital firm.
The Accelerator Centre, a Waterloo-based organization that promotes advanced technology entrepreneurs in the Waterloo area, helped arrange the funding for Tyromer Inc. Tyromer will use the money to build a devulcanization machine—based on the patented technology and designs of Costas Tzoganaskis, a chemical engineering professor at the University of Waterloo—and set up a pilot plant by the end of the year at the AirBoss Inc. facility in Kitchener, Ontario.
Tyromer approached the AC for aid in financing, according to Tim Ellis, the AC's director of operations. The AC is part of the Technology Transfer Office at the University of Waterloo, and Tom Corr, CEO of the AC, also heads the Technology Transfer Office, Ellis said.
According to company publicity, Tyromer's devulcanized rubber offers physical properties and strength close to those of virgin rubber. Its chief use will be to make tread rubber for retread tires, the company said. However, the material also can be used as a replacement for synthetic rubber in various applications, or in blends with synthetic rubber, natural rubber or plastics such as polypropylene, it said.