Image Source: Aduro Clean Technologies

Aduro Clean Technologies (ADUR) is a development-stage company that has developed a patented, carbon-neutral technology capable of upcycling plastic, bitumen, and renewable oils (like aviation fuel, canola oil, corn oil, etc).

There are multiple reasons why this company is interesting:

• The company has a huge TAM.
• The company has proprietary hydrochemolytic technology, which offers several important advantages.
• The company has a capital-light business model.
• The company already has multiple partners.

Hydrochemolytic Technology (HCT) Platform

The HCT platform is a novel chemical conversion process designed to transform low-grade renewable oils and waste plastics into specialty chemicals and renewable fuels.

It uses unique properties of water and a latent form of hydrogen derived from cheap, non-petroleum sources (such as biomass) to achieve chemical reactions under significantly milder conditions compared to conventional methods.

The company holds 8 patents on the HCT technology, the last one was granted at the start of 2025.
 

The technology is applied across three primary areas

• Hydrochemolytic Plastics Upcycling (HPU): Converts mixed and contaminated waste plastics — including agricultural and marine plastic waste, synthetic turf, and post-consumer refuse — into valuable hydrocarbon feedstocks such as naphtha and lighter chemical precursors. It converts hard-to-recycle plastic (polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene) into feedstocks for new plastics or hydrocarbon fuels, regenerates higher volumes of waste plastics, and aims to handle materials rejected by mechanical recycling.
• Hydrochemolytic Bitumen Upgrading (HBU): The initial rationale for developing HTC was transforming heavy crude oil and bitumen into lighter, higher-value synthetic crude products. This process partially upgrades oil while reducing impurities and viscosity, improving quality and transportability with lower energy and hydrogen requirements.
• Hydrochemolytic Renewables Upgrading (HRU): Converts renewable feedstocks such as vegetable oils, waste fats, or bio-oils into renewable diesel, sustainable aviation fuel, and renewable chemicals. It uses similar chemistry to HPU and HBU but adapted for renewable inputs.

Additional applications

And there is scope for additions, like expanding its technology’s adaptability for additional market segments, including rubber tire and complex polymer waste processing, by tuning reaction parameters to manage different molecular structures and contamination levels.

Synthetic turf has already been successfully tested as another opportunity and it's gathering interest from industry players.

These R&D initiatives aim to extend HCT’s flexibility across multiple major markets estimated to exceed $290B in potential addressable value by 2030.

Competitive advantage

Aduro's HCT platform has several advantages compared to traditional thermolytic or pyrolytic platforms:

• HCT operates under lower temperature conditions (much lower than typical pyrolysis operating between 325-350°C). This results in significantly lower energy consumption and reduces greenhouse gas emissions, making the process more environmentally friendly and cost-effective.​
• Unlike pyrolysis, which often requires molecular hydrogen (an energy-intensive and high-CO2 feedstock), HCT uses water combined with low-value metal catalysts and biobased materials such as glycerol and cellulose. This reduces dependence on expensive and high-emission inputs while offering a gentler chemical conversion process.​
• HCT can handle a wide range of plastics, including difficult feedstocks contaminated with multilayers, PET, or mixed materials. This adaptability maximizes plastic recovery and reduces costly pre-treatment and sorting, which pyrolysis systems often require.​
• HCT delivers feedstock conversion yields above 95% on pure polypropylene with minimal feedstock lost to char or fuel gases. Pyrolysis typically incurs greater loss and degradation during high-heat cracking.​
• Outputs from HCT processes often require less refining or hydrogenation compared to pyrolysis byproducts, translating to additional cost and energy savings downstream.​
• The technology is modular and can operate effectively on smaller scales, enabling decentralized processing closer to waste generation sources and allowing flexibility for varied plant sizes and customer needs.​
• Apart from plastics recycling, HCT also targets upgrading heavy crude oils, bitumen, and renewable oils, leveraging its chemistry platform for multiple commercial verticals, expanding addressable markets beyond traditional pyrolysis scope.

Third-party validation

There is considerable third-party validation already:

Third-Party Expert Report

In early 2022, Dr. Paul Charpentier, an expert in chemistry and alternative energy, conducted an independent review validating Aduro’s HCT performance in upgrading Alberta bitumen.

The report confirmed that HCT upgraded bitumen from an API gravity of 14.6 to lighter crude at 19.5 API in controlled laboratory conditions, demonstrating technical feasibility for continuous flow reactors typically used in commercial settings.

This validation enhanced confidence in Aduro’s projections of lower operating costs and energy consumption for commercial applications.​

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) by Delphi

Aduro engaged Delphi Group, a respected independent sustainability consulting firm, to perform an ISO-compliant LCA focused initially on greenhouse gas emissions and energy use associated with HCT.

The screening-level LCA, based on pilot-scale and design data, aims to benchmark HCT against other chemical recycling technologies like pyrolysis.

Preliminary findings suggest potential 40-60% reductions in carbon footprint compared to conventional recycling, supporting HCT’s environmental superiority.

The phased LCA is ongoing and is expected to provide comprehensive insights covering the full lifecycle from feedstock sourcing to product use.​ Needless to say that this doesn't constitute third-party validation, at least not yet.

Customer Collaboration and Pilot Plant Testing

Aduro's Next Generation Process (NGP) pilot plant, developed with global engineering leader Zeton, is on track to validate HCT at continuous operational scale starting in late 2025.

This pilot facility will produce operational data to confirm yields, energy balances, and product quality, providing further independent operational validation for customers and stakeholders.​

Industry and Sector Partnerships

Aduro’s memorandum of understanding with Cleanfarms, a major agricultural plastics waste organization, launched multi-phase feasibility studies of HCT applied to on-farm plastic waste, demonstrating independent third-party engagement evaluating technology applicability on real-world feedstocks.

Business model

The company has two main lines of revenue generation:

• Pilot and Demonstration Plants
• Customer Engagement Program (CEP)

Revenues will come in the form of royalties (in the order of 20-30% of plant revenue), while pilot plants are likely to earn higher margins (40-50%) from sales of recycled products.

​At present, revenue is insignificant and comes from customer engagement programs and testing services, on a project basis.

Pilot and Demonstration Plants

There is already a working pilot plant used to support R&D, often cooperating with prospective customers. The R2 Plastic Reactor (a pilot-scale continuous flow plastic reactor) operates successfully at the Company’s pilot site in Sarnia, Ontario.

It is used for R&D and customer engagement, handling various plastic feedstocks and evaluating contaminated materials. 

Aduro’s Next Generation Process (NGP) Pilot Plant — commissioned in 2025 — validates continuous operation and yield performance for plastics upcycling.

Aduro is currently scaling up its technology for plastic and bitumen applications. The NGP Pilot Plant has a capacity of 8K ton per year.

• The basic engineering design phase was completed on January 23, 2025. The detailed design phase has been surpassed, leveraging expertise from Zeton, a globally recognized leader engaged by Aduro in November 2024.
• Installation and commissioning are targeted for Q3/25. 
• The commissioning started in September 2025 and will be operative before year-end.

The aim is to scale this with successively bigger plants:
 

The next phase is the Demonstration Plant, designed to handle one ton per hour of feedstock and support partner trials before full commercial rollout projected for 2027–2029. 

The company signed an MoU with NexGen in March 2025 for the development of this demonstration plant.
 

Customer Engagement Program

Aduro’s Customer Engagement Program (CEP) involves prospective customers and partners (including petrochemical companies, waste management companies, and resource companies) in technology evaluation and collaboration to guide R&D and business development.

All relationships in the CEP are currently in the technology evaluation and collaboration stages; Aduro does not have any definitive partnership or material collaboration agreements in place.
 

Key Engagements

• TotalEnergies SE: On July 30, 2024, Aduro entered into a 12-month R&D strategic collaboration phase with TotalEnergies SE, focusing on diverse, hard-to-recycle waste plastic materials (e.g., higher concentrations of polyolefins, polyurethane, metals) to optimize process design and operating conditions.
• MFP Company: On March 5, 2024, a leading, global food processing and distribution company was onboarded for a technical evaluation of HCT focused on recycling the MFP Company's plastic waste from food packaging.
• MBM Company / GF: On March 27, 2024, a leading multinational building materials company (MBM Company) was onboarded. This engagement led to an MOU with GF (a leader in sustainable building solutions and MBM Company's affiliate) on November 12, 2024, following initial technical evaluation results demonstrating HCT's unique ability to break down cross-linked polyethylene (PEX).
• Shell GameChanger Program: The 12-month, six-phase project is nearing its final stages. As of September 5, 2023, Aduro had successfully completed the first three phases, meeting targets related to HCT performance using pure and mixed plastic feeds, and understanding contaminant impact.
• CHILL/Brightlands: Aduro's European subsidiary is based in Geleen, Netherlands. Aduro continues to work with CHILL to execute an experimentation program focused on accelerating the scale-up of the HCT for plastics upcycling.
   

Market opportunity

A main reason why Aduro is an interesting prospect is that the TAM is enormous, in excess of $290B by 2030. 

An earlier ESG analysis estimates a global combined potential above $437B, breaking down into roughly $307B for biofuels, $67B for oil upgrading, and $63B for plastics recycling. Within Canada alone, the addressable opportunities reach around $95B ($30B plastics, $25B renewables, $40B heavy oil).
 

​Whatever the exact size, it's not surprising that the TAM is huge:

• The convergence of global decarbonization mandates and circular economy targets is driving sustainable plastics recycling and low-carbon fuel production.
• The huge and growing microplastics problem, which seems to be everywhere, and producing considerable health risks, many of which we still fail to understand fully as many chemicals are unknown and so is the cumulative effect.
• A possible expansion into adjacent verticals such as rubber, synthetic turf, and multi-layered plastic waste could further increase the total market opportunity beyond current estimates.
• Multisector deployability of its water-based chemical technology, which underpins potential long-term scalability and recurring licensing income.

Finances 

As we argued above, revenues are not significant at the moment as its non-recurring services under Customer Engagement Programs are for the evaluation of the company’s technology and collaboration work.
 

Data by YCharts

The just published Q1/26 revenue was C$44.5K (down 19% from C$55K in Q1/25). 
 

Data by YCharts
 

The OpEx graph above is in GAAP and also contains depreciation, changes in derivative financial liability and share-based pay. What is important from the financial side is the cash burn and the cash on the balance sheet:
 

Data by YCharts
 

Operating cash use in Q1/26 was just C$2.6M. The company had C$15.1M left at the end of Q1/26 (August 31, 2025), which should be good for a year at least on the present burn rate. The position was strengthened by a public offering in June 2025, raising US$9.2M in gross proceeds from 1.09M shares and accompanying warrants (with an exercise price of US$10.13).
 

FY25 Milestones

Valuation

Data by YCharts
 

There are 2.5M exercisable options and 846K exercisable warrants outstanding for a fully diluted share count of 34.5M shares. At $15 per share, that produces a market cap of $518M and an EV of $507.3M.

Conclusion

There are multiple things to like:

• The company has proprietary, patented technology that is scalable, likely widely applicable, and has multiple advantages versus competing solutions.
• The company has an enormous TAM and benefits from a secular tailwind from the escalating plastics crisis.
• The company has a capital-light business model, mostly relying on royalties.
• Things are about to accelerate with the pilot plant coming online shortly.
• The company has cash for at least a year, and the pilot plant could very well extend that.

Against that, it will be no surprise that we don't know a great deal about the economics, nor the speed at which revenue will grow. Given the royalty-based business model, not a whole lot needs to happen to put the company on a sounder footing financially, though.

How to play?

With the stock off its highs, trading around $15 at writing time, you could just buy the stock, but an ATM option, like the Nov, Dec, or Jan $15 call (which trade at roughly $1.5, $2.20, and $2.70 respectively) could be a cheaper way to enter and play the upcoming catalysts. 

These call options give you the right to buy the stock at $15 on or before the expiration day. Keep in mind one option contract is good for 100 shares. It’s a strategy that requires much less capital and limits the downside to the option premium (the $1.5, $2.2, $2.7 per contract, depending on the expiration date).

An additional idea would be to finance part of such an option position by selling $12.5 puts should the market have a tantrum. This obliges you to buy 100 shares of ADUR at the expiration date for $12.50 should the price of the shares be below $12.50 at that time, giving you a nice entry point in the stock.

If the shares are above $12.50 at the expiration time, you simply pocket the premium you got for selling the option contract. As always, options carry risks including time decay and potential assignment, and should be used as part of a broader risk-managed strategy rather than a short-term speculative trade?

Interested in learning more about this industry? Similar companies include Radius Recycling (RDUS), Casella Waste Systems (CWST), PureCycle (PCT), Aemetis (AMTX), and Agilyx (AGXXF)

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