90% Across the Blend: Aduro's Pilot Is Now Writing the FOAK's Engineering Basis

Disclosure: I hold a long position in Aduro Clean Technologies (Nasdaq: ADUR / TSX: ACT) and may buy or sell at any time. I receive no compensation from Aduro for this article. This is not investment advice; do your own due diligence.

Most small-cap “pilot updates” are press releases looking for a story. Aduro’s September 23 release is the opposite. The story is there, and the release undersells it.

Here is what Aduro reported. Across three controlled feeds in its Next Generation Process (NGP) pilot plant, condensable hydrocarbon yield was 88.8% on 100% polypropylene (PP), 90.8% on an 80:20 PP/polyethylene (PE) blend, and 89.2% on a 50:50 PP/PE blend. The campaign ran for 75 hours and processed roughly 758 kg of polymer.[1]

The yield numbers don't move my conviction. Three other things do: how tight the band is, the two-hour process-control gain, and the fact that this pilot is now an input into a tier-one contractor’s engineering work.

The tight band is the real story

Polypropylene and polyethylene behave differently when you try to take them apart. PP cracks more readily. PE is the stubborn one. In conventional thermal processes, adding PE to a feed tends to shift the product slate. That is a big reason pyrolysis operators obsess over feed sorting.

Aduro stepped from pure PP to 80:20 to 50:50 PP/PE, and the condensable yield moved by only two percentage points across the whole range. The company says product-quality indicators also stayed consistent with prior campaigns.[1]

This matters for commercial deployment. Real post-consumer polyolefin waste never arrives at a fixed PP/PE ratio. A process that holds yield and product quality as the ratio moves is one a feedstock supplier can actually feed. That is the claim Aduro has been making for years at bench scale. It is now showing up at pilot scale, in continuous operation.

Read the definition (and why that makes me more bullish)

The definition matters here, so I’ll state it clearly. Aduro defines condensable yield as the recovered liquid and waxy hydrocarbon product, excluding non-condensed gases.[1] The June 47-hour run reported an 86% liquid hydrocarbon yield on recovered PP.

These are different metrics, so don’t read September as “yield went up from 86% to 90%.” I’m flagging this deliberately. Anyone who sells it as a four-point improvement is handing the bears an easy rebuttal. The accurate bullish reading is stronger anyway: the chemistry did not degrade as PE content increased. For a commercial feedstock, that is worth more than an extra point of yield.

All yields are as reported by the company, at pilot scale, on controlled polymer feeds.

Two hours: the currency of scale-up

The most underrated line in the release is this one: after changes in process conditions, the system returned to target operating conditions about two hours sooner than in the comparable prior run. Aduro calls this a measurable sign of improving process control.[1]

Chemistry gets companies funded. Process control is what gets plants built. When feed composition changes in a commercial unit, every hour spent away from target conditions is off-spec product, operator intervention, and lost throughput. Aduro now measures that recovery time and reduces it from one campaign to the next.

It does this intentionally, through iteration. Between campaigns, the team reviews operating and analytical data, assesses how the equipment and instrumentation performed, and implements fixes, then tests them in the next run.[1] Run the unit, find the constraint, fix it, run again. That is how you find problems at 10 kg/hr rather than at 1,000 kg/hr.

The pilot is now an engineering input

This is the part I think the market is still under-reading.

In August, Aduro selected Saipem S.p.A. for Early Works engineering and procurement support on its planned first-of-a-kind (FOAK) Hydrochemolytic™ Technology facility at Chemelot in the Netherlands.[2] The September release confirms the loop is closed. Saipem’s scope covers reviewing the Process Design Package, optimizing critical equipment packages, preliminary utility integration, and refining capital cost estimates. Saipem is already receiving NGP operating data.[1]

Put simply, the London pilot is no longer an internal R&D asset. It is producing the data a global EPC contractor uses to size equipment and tighten the capex number. That is what a company does when it intends to reach a final investment decision.

Aduro has also said the Early Works are expected to be funded from existing cash, with no additional financing required.[2]

What the interview added

Management followed the release with a two-part shareholder update, the “September Double Feature.”[4] As with any interview, treat it as management commentary, not formal disclosure. The chapters cover the definitional difference between 86% liquid and 88.8% condensable yield, where the waxy fraction goes, what happens to the gas, the step from 47 to 75 hours and the road to a five-day run, and why testing started PP-heavy.

On the corporate side, the chapters cover Ofer explaining a recent estate transfer, European investor outreach including Geneva, and the paraffinic crude program. That program now has its own dedicated continuous-flow unit in the expanded London facility. The update also covered Saipem’s early works and how FY2026 capital is being deployed.

The next step is the one I care most about. Aduro expects longer campaigns on more complex waste plastic, including prospective FOAK feedstocks and selected materials from its Customer Engagement Program. Controlled testing will also extend across the PP/PE range, including an 80:20 PE/PP blend.[1] In plain terms: PE-heavy feeds first, then real, messy waste supplied by the partners who would feed Chemelot.

The balance sheet is not the constraint

Aduro closed fiscal 2026 (May 31) with C$38.3M in cash, up from C$7.0M a year earlier. After year-end, it received roughly $31M in gross proceeds from a U.S. public offering and a non-brokered private placement.[3]

Don’t let the headline loss scare you. The FY2026 net loss of about C$26.8M includes a roughly C$10.0M non-cash charge from revaluing warrant-related derivative liabilities.[5] That is a mark-to-market charge on USD-denominated warrants, and it grows when the share price rises. Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of about C$10.7M.[3] With roughly C$70M or more raised against a burn of about C$10–11M, Aduro can fund the pilot program and Early Works without any near-term financing pressure.

Where this sits on the commercialization path

Aduro has moved through three stages. In the first, the question was whether the chemistry works at bench scale. In the second, the question was whether it holds in continuous operation; the June 47-hour run answered that. The third stage, where Aduro is now, asks whether it holds across changing feeds, with improving control, feeding an EPC’s engineering basis. The September campaign answers yes on all three at pilot scale.

What remains is the stage that matters most: real waste feeds, longer durations, then FID and construction at Chemelot. The FY2026 MD&A now points to commissioning in early calendar 2028. The next pilot campaigns are the bridge to get there.

What would change my mind?

First, a significant drop in yield, product quality, or run stability once real post-consumer waste enters the pilot. That is the next honest test, and controlled blends are not waste plastic.

Second, scale-up problems at the FOAK plant. A 75-hour pilot run is still a small fraction of the durability a commercial plant needs, and Chemelot is where HCT has to prove itself at industrial duty.

Third, the FOAK schedule slipping materially beyond 2028 commissioning, or the Saipem engagement stalling before FEED. The whole commercial model runs through Chemelot. Licensees will want to see a plant operating at commercial scale before they commit, especially after the industry’s expensive experience with pyrolysis. The Saipem engagement is still an Early Works scope under a conditional letter of award, not an EPC construction contract.[2] So the milestones that matter between now and 2028 are FEED and construction progress, not a license signature.

Fourth, a lack of licensing traction once the FOAK is up and running. That is the real test of the business model.

What I’m watching

I’m watching for the first campaign on partner-supplied waste plastic and its yield and product-quality readout; the PE-heavy 80:20 run; a five-day continuous campaign; a full FEED contract with Saipem; progress on the Chemelot permit; and conversion of the March offtake LOI into something binding. Strategic visibility is also growing: Aduro was recently named among 10 companies invited to present at the PepsiCo Sustainability Innovation Hub 2026.

A year ago the question was whether the chemistry was real. Today the question is how quickly a tier-one contractor can turn pilot data into a plant that can be financed. That is a much better question to be asking, and each campaign answers more of it.

Sources

1. Aduro Clean Technologies, “Aduro Reports 88.8% to 90.8% Condensable Hydrocarbon Yield Across Changing Polyolefin Feeds in 75-Hour NGP Campaign,” GlobeNewswire, Sept 23, 2026. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/09/23/3367412/0/en/aduro-reports-88-8-to-90-8-condensable-hydrocarbon-yield-across-changing-polyolefin-feeds-in-75-hour-ngp-campaign.html
2. Aduro Clean Technologies, “Aduro Selects Saipem for Engineering and Procurement Support for First-of-a-Kind HCT Facility at Chemelot,” GlobeNewswire, Aug 19, 2026. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/08/19/3347587/0/en/aduro-selects-saipem-for-engineering-and-procurement-support-for-first-of-a-kind-hct-facility-at-chemelot.html
3. Aduro Clean Technologies, “Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2026 Results and Business Update,” GlobeNewswire, Sept 1, 2026. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/09/01/3354116/0/en/aduro-clean-technologies-reports-fourth-quarter-and-fiscal-year-2026-results-and-provides-business-update.html
4. Aduro “September Double Feature: Campaign Numbers & Shareholder Update” (YouTube).
   https://youtu.be/Y0hPZujUTNs
5. Aduro FY2026 audited consolidated financial statements (Form 40-F, SEC EDGAR). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001863934/000106299326004744/exhibit99-2.htm

Disclosure: I hold a long position in Aduro Clean Technologies (Nasdaq: ADUR / TSX: ACT) and may buy or sell at any time. I receive no compensation from Aduro for this article. This is not investment advice; do your own due diligence.