Northstar Clean Technologies readies for multi-billion dollar market

Northstar, which was founded in 2015, began trading in July of 2021 through a $12.2-million go-public financing. The company owns a proprietary design process for repurposing used roofing shingles. The company’s Bitumen Extraction and Separation Technology (BEST) takes used shingles, separates them into their components of aggregate, fibre and “green” asphalt, with the products then going into making new shingles and asphalt for roads.

Northstar yesterday reported that production at its pilot facility in Delta, BC has been steadily increasing and that the company expects to get to fifty to seventy-five tonnes per day by the end of the fourth quarter of this fiscal year. The company said the facility has been important because it helps to identify key areas of improvement and provides feedback from production specification analysis and for engineering development work.

It’s an important milestone because ROOF is after what could be a very large prize. Earlier this summer, Eight Capital analyst Sean Keaney said the company had a “considerable head start” in a total addressable market for asphalt shingles that he estimated at US$1.35 billion in Canada and US$7 billion in the United States. He noted that nearly six million homes are re-roofed in the US every year, sending about 12 million tonnes of asphalt shingles to landfills.

CEO Aidan Mills said he is pleased with the progress to date.

“We are very happy with the progress we have made at the Empower Pilot Facility and the three key areas of feedback we have received,” he said. “Only by operating our Empower Pilot Facility from the front-end to the back-end can we learn how to operate our facilities to reach their maximum potential. This is critical for both the Empower Pilot Facility and the Empower Calgary Facility. We have enjoyed ongoing research & development (“R&D”) support from major international conglomerates and we believe that this support demonstrates interest in our proprietary process and because this R&D support comes from the paving, shingle manufacturing, and flat roofing manufacturing sectors, it validates our assumption of the wide applicability of our products. Lastly, as we work with key industry partners involved in certain steps of our process, their feedback has been equally as applicable to the Empower Pilot Facility as to the Empower Calgary Facility. In turn, we have applied that feedback immediately when practicable or will wait until the next major shutdown.”

At press time, shares of ROOF were up a half-cent to $0.16.

Disclosure: Northstar Clean Technologies is an annual sponsor of Cantech Letter.