The Enval process story began over 15 years ago when Professor Howard Chase started investigating potential environmental applications arising from the microwave heating of carbon. In 1997, Carlos Ludlow-Palafox started his PhD course supervised by Professor Chase and, over the next four years, he conducted a substantial amount of research into the microwave pyrolysis of plastics and plastic-containing wastes in batch systems.

From 2001 to 2003, partially supported by a grant from the EPSRC under the WR3 scheme, development of the technology continued, which led to the design of Enval's continuous equipment (and a successful worldwide patent application).

Aided by investment from the University of Cambridge Challenge Fund, the initial design stage concluded in 2005 when Howard and Carlos (together with Dr. Alex Domin) won the Cambridge University Entrepreneurs' Business Creation Competition, founded Enval Ltd and, following the construction of the first bench scale prototype of the process, received in 2006 a significant investment from a syndicate of investors.

In 2007 Enval received a Research Grant from the East of England Development Agency that allowed the Company to continue the development of its technology for different applications and in 2008 the successful completion of the first pilot-plant of the process led to completion of a funding round in 2009.