PowerHouse clarifies IP position after Sunday Express error

Technology company PowerHouse Energy Group was forced to respond to a report from weekend tabloid the Sunday Express on Monday, which had reported a day prior that PowerHouse’s development partner Waste2Tricity had patented a method of turning plastic into hydrogen.

The AIM-traded PowerHouse develops technology that produces hydrogen from waste plastic and used tyres, as well as the ‘DMG System’.

It said that, while it did not mention PowerHouse specifically, the Sunday Express reported that Waste2Tricity"has patented a method of heating plastic until it 'gasifies' into hydrogen …”

The actual patents related to the thermal conversion of waste plastic to hydrogen and electricity had been developed, and were in the process of being filed, by PowerHouse Energy Group, with all proprietary intellectual property related to the DMG Thermal Conversion Process owned by PowerHouse, and would be licensed to Waste2Tricity.

PowerHouse said the inadvertent error in reporting had resulted in “a number of inquiries” regarding the intellectual property position of PowerHouse as it related to its DMG System technology.

“To clarify, Waste2Tricity is a licensee of PowerHouse technology and IP and will pay to leverage that IP to develop projects in a number of geographies including the UK and Japan,” the PowerHouse board said in its statement.

“The Sunday Express article further states that Waste2Tricity has ‘teamed up with Toyota to open new recycling and refueling stations….’

“However, to date, no agreements regarding the deployment of the DMG Technology for new recycling and refueling stations have been finalised between the parties.”

As it announced on 26 November, Waste2Tricity had been leading discussions with Toyota Tsusho for a number of months, PowerHouse said.

An extensive review of the DMG technology by Toyota Tsusho's Chemical Business Development Division was now under way, following PowerHouse having achieved its recent statement of feasibility by technical assurance provider DNV-GL.