EarthFirst Technology (OTCBB: EFTI) shares climbed 6 percent this morning to 8 cents, reflecting the company’s announcement that its Wesco subsidiary has been awarded an air permit by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) that will allow the company to commence full-time commercial operations of its Catalytic Activated Vacuum Distillation (CAVD) technology.The permit procedure took about 14 months as the company waited for administrative review and public comment. In most states, including Alabama, pyrolysis reactors can only be used on a research and development (R&D) level – the by-products cannot be sold to third parties, and the operating company cannot engage in other commercial activities.
“Over a long period of time we have worked on that process, and we are ready to commercialize and go to the marketplace,” EarthFirst CEO John Stanton told Market News First.
Pyrolysis, by definition, is the chemical decomposition of organic materials by heating in the absence of oxygen or any other reagents. Pyrolysis has been gaining acceptance in the waste management industry as more uses are found to reduce waste volumes and to produce fuels as a by-product.
“Obtaining the ADEM operating permit for Mobile [Alabama] is a significant milestone for our CAVD technology and its commercial application to any available feedstock. We believe that this is the first pyrolytic reactor of its kind to secure all needed permits and be cleared for commercial operations in the United States,” Stanton said in a press release.
Nick Massari, senior vice president of EarthFirst, told MN1 that EarthFirst has invested more than $25 million in the last 10 years to develop technology to create an alternative energy – stressing the importance of the need for cleaner burning fuel. To address the issue, the company has funneled its R&D into developing technology to process used tires, carpet scraps, soybeans, corn and ethanol waste into syngas, oils, carbonaceous material and other by-products.
Massari noted that tires are made to be heavy duty for longevity – but after they’ve blown out and are of no use they become an environmental burden. That’s where the company’s technology comes into play. EarthFirst has found a way to “devulcanize” the tire, literally reversing the “vulcanizing” process – or the way a tire is made. The energies inside the tire (such as carbon, oil and gas) can be converted into a useable product.
“The company’s continued commitment to CAVD development and new patents now allow us to produce a CAVD carbon and tire derived oil that are substitutes for certain grades of virgin carbon black and residual oils. Both of these petroleum based products have more than doubled in value in the recent years. We will focus initially on processing the 285 million used tires generated annually which currently impose a severe environmental burden on our country,” said Stanton.
The CAVD technology is also applicable to the production of bio-oils, which could then be processed through a traditionally refinery and cracked into biodiesel and ethanol.
“We need to get those greenhouse gases under control and that’s where our two technologies are focusing,” said Massari.
A lot of companies are producing biodiesel and other refinery products, but Massari said EarthFirst intends on operating a refinery that will produce 60 million gallons as well as other green products from vegetable oil.
Massari doesn’t expect the popularity and use of biodiesel to take as long as ethanol has, and said that the future is carbon dioxide reduction technologies.
“The more biodiesel you use, the cleaner the air gets … it’s becoming cost effective. We’re going to see biodiesel come on strong here in the next little bit,” he concluded.
