Montreal firm building mobile plasma unit to destroy chemical weapons

MONTREAL—PyroGenesis Canada Inc. has received more than $800,000 in funding to build a mobile plasma system that will be used to destroy chemical weapons like the ones being used in Syria.

According to the company, the funding for the project was awarded by “international military consortium” comprised of undisclosed nations’ armed forces, which will spend more than $100 million testing the system using simulated and actual chemical warfare agents.

The company was first awarded a contract in June to develop the mobile plasma system.

PyroGenesis said the system will be fabricated and assembled at its facilities, and will consist of two pre-assembled trailers which will be “readily deployable into emergency situations.”

“Although we are not privy to the timing of commercial orders, or the number of units that may be ordered upon successful testing, we are led to believe that given the nature of the project and the funds being allocated to testing, there is an immediate need for multiple systems,” PyroGenesis president and CEO Peter Pascali said in a statement.

The system is scheduled to be delivered in the first half of 2015.