CARBONCYCLE LLC — Department of Defense STTR Phase I: AF20C-TCSO1

Description

CarbonCycle is a Waste to Value company. We have developed a system that converts carbon-based waste—scrap tires, mixed plastics, used oil, bio-waste, paper, and wood (to name a few)—into valuable and usable products via our proprietary Advanced Pyrolysis technology. Our system implements a closed loop solution, creating valuable, reusable carbon and oil based products through thermal conversion of waste with zero harmful emissions and net positive energy. We have built a prototype system at our headquarters in Mansfield, MO that has allowed us to attract investment interest and several large customers committed to purchase systems (or poised to do so) to convert their own waste into value. We are in the process of building a production prototype to meet identified DoD adaptations via an SBIR Phase 2 award (SBIR 19.3 Contract: FA864920C0305). As a follow-on to our SBIR Phase 2 work, CarbonCycle aims to explore and exploit the value-add end-product potential of the system as a means to dramatically increase its circular economic potential within the DoD and commercially. While our SBIR project scope ends in the production of commodities as offtakes (crude oil and carbon char), this project aims to take it another step and develop products (including critical chemicals and minerals) that can be created from these commodity offtakes that would further increase the circularity and value potential of the system. Potential products include: fuel (jet, diesel, etc), solvents, graphite, filtration (water & air), asphalt modifiers, and construction materials (concrete & aggregate). We know our system can create internally sourced, made-in-America, closed loop products from DoD waste streams and with this project we intend to discover the best product-market fit for doing so. We have teamed up with the Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering and Material Science Departments at Missouri University of Science & Technology to add technical expertise in a variety of relevant industries, expert product development experience, and a solid track record of research. Together, we propose a Phase 1 feasibility study that will identify the best-fit DAF customer and examine their needs and opportunities (and those of the larger DoD environment) to illuminate a product development path that will have the most potential for circular impact within the DAF and beyond.  This Phase 1 work will form the basis of our Phase 2 R&D proposal—allowing us to identify products for development, add additional researcher partners from Missouri S&T or other institutions based on the specific expertise needs identified, and structure the research plan accordingly. Our team has 30+ years of experience working on Waste-to-Energy facilities. We also have the entrepreneurial experience, academic rigor, financial backing and commercial traction required to make both the commercial and DoD applications of our technology a success.