PyroGenesis Canada Inc., a Montreal-based high-tech company specializing in all-electric plasma processes and sustainable industrial solutions, announced Friday that material produced during the latest testing phase of its Fumed Silica Reactor (FSR) pilot plant has been successfully collected from the system’s product recovery unit, known as the baghouse.

The announcement follows the company’s May 13 news release and a separate statement issued the same day by its client, HPQ Silicon Inc. The collected substance—believed to be fumed silica—has been sent to a third-party laboratory for analysis to verify its composition and purity.

The pilot plant, developed by PyroGenesis for HPQ Silica Polvere Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of HPQ Silicon, has now entered a critical phase in which lab-scale assumptions are being tested at pilot scale. The main focus is to validate that the scale-up from lab to pilot operations can consistently replicate the high-quality fumed silica originally produced in the lab environment.

If confirmed, the third-party results will validate three major assumptions: that the PyroGenesis process can reliably produce material collectable within the baghouse, that the product formed is indeed fumed silica as expected, and that any impurities present are both anticipated and manageable.

“This is a welcomed result,” said P. Peter Pascali, president and CEO of PyroGenesis. “We anxiously await the results from the third-party lab to confirm, or otherwise, that we have achieved this key milestone.”

Fumed silica is a widely used industrial material found in thousands of everyday products, including cosmetics, toothpaste, pharmaceuticals, adhesives, paints, thermal insulation, food additives, and even batteries. It is valued for its anti-caking, thickening, and stabilizing properties.

The production of fumed silica from quartz by PyroGenesis fits within the company’s Commodity Security & Optimization vertical—one of its three strategic pillars, alongside Energy Transition and Emission Reduction and Waste Remediation. This vertical focuses on the development of advanced materials and technologies that enhance the efficient use of raw resources and improve the supply of critical minerals.

Using proprietary plasma technology, PyroGenesis aims to develop sustainable and scalable solutions that meet the growing demand for cleaner, more reliable industrial processes. The current pilot plant results represent a step forward in this effort, with full-scale commercialization dependent on successful third-party validation of the collected material. Test results from the laboratory are expected in the coming days.

PyroGenesis is a leading high-tech company specializing in the design, development, manufacturing and commercialization of advanced plasma technologies and sustainable industrial solutions. Focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the company offers economically viable alternatives to traditional, high-pollution processes. PyroGenesis has developed proprietary, patented plasma-based systems that are currently being evaluated and adopted by several multibillion-dollar companies across four major sectors: iron ore pelletization, aluminum production, waste management and additive manufacturing.