The CEO of Clean Energy Technologies talks about his company’s work to bring a modular pyrolysis system to the United States.
Renewable energy incentive markets are changing, and Kam Mahdi, CEO of Clean Energy Technologies, or CETY, wants to be at the center of those changes.
His firm acquired the rights to a pyrolysis system from General Electric three years ago, and he’s hoping to bring the technology from Europe to the United States. Mahdi anticipates that his system, which can produce renewable natural gas, electricity and biochar, could take advantage of current incentives for carbon capture and eRINs, Renewable Identification Numbers for the electric vehicle market, that the U.S. EPA may soon enact.
CETY went public in March, and this week it reached an agreement with the Northeastern Vermont Development Association to purchase an eight-acre site for its first U.S. facility. CETY expects the project, backed by a $10 million investment, to become fully commissioned in 12 monhs.
Mahdi spoke with Waste Dive in May, before the purchase was finalized, to explain the path he sees for the technology.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
WASTE DIVE: What makes your pyrolysis system different and why did you decide to bring it to the United States?
Headshot
Clean Energy Technologies CEO Kam Mahdi
Permission granted by CETY
KAM MAHDI: I’m an engineer and serial entrepreneur at heart. So in 2016, we had this vision to support startup innovators in the clean energy technologies segment. We had this vision to bring this wide spectrum of clean energy companies under one umbrella as a public company and be able to offer recyclable energy solutions in energy fuels and alternative electricity to lots of small and mid-sized projects in North America, Europe and Asia that obviously make economic and environmental sense.
In 2016, we acquired this technology from General Electric which converts waste heat into electricity, and that’s how we came acros the industry that is biomass, a lot of industrial facilities, wastewater treatment plants, landfills and small power plants. Pyrolysis systems are coming up and not being utilized a lot in the North American marketplace, while obviously being used in Europe more frequently.
The technology of our pyrolysis system is called HTAP, which stands for high temperature ablative pyrolysis system. It processes industrial and municipal organic waste in a high temperature pyrolysis system and converts waste to energy. We just basically take the organic waste and it gets decomposed into synthetic gas and pyrolysis char.
