Our technology was originally developed by a consortium of Dutch paper mills during the 1990s as a safe and environmentally friendly disposal method for paper sludges and residues produced by the paper recycling industry.

Traditionally, these waste products were either buried in landfill sites or incinerated in industrial waste processing plants. However, with suitable land scarce in the densely populated Netherlands, and an ever present risk of long term soil and groundwater contamination, the Dutch Government, (through the introduction of both legislation and landfill taxes), began pressuring its domestic paper recycling industry to find an alternative to landfill. While conventional industrial incineration offered a possible solution, concern about dioxin emissions, and widespread protests from local communities made this option both financial and politically unacceptable.

Initial research work on the core process technology commenced in 1992, with early development and demonstration work carried out at the University of Twente in The Netherlands at bench and pilot scale and subsequently at CSIR, Pretoria, South Africa at pilot scale.

In 1995, recognising the potential of the core process technology to capture toxic emissions and heavy metals, MinPlus-CDEM initiated research at the Universities of Arizona and Utah in the United States to develop a high-value application to clean the flue gases produced by coal fired power stations.

The success of the initial research on the core process technology led to permission being granted for a full scale demonstration plant in 1999. Plans were drawn up and ThyssenKrupp was appointed to commence construction. Commissioning took place in 2002 and full-scale commercial operations began in 2005.

In 2007, with commercial operations now firmly established, the original Dutch paper industry participants took the decision to sell their shares in the founding company to the Company’s management team, with funding support from a group of private investors.

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