Oil instead of fuel

Gary De Laurentiis, CEO of Green EnviroTech Holdings (GETH), based in Oakdale, Calif., says he developed an interest in converting plastics to fuel in 2008, when he was approached by a major U.S. car manufacturer looking to recycle plastics from auto shredder residue (ASR).

It was a task that intrigued the entrepreneur, who has worked in the plastics recycling industry for the last 25 years through his involvement in various manufacturing ventures in the U.S. and in China.

Along the way De Laurentiis discovered a Chinese electromagnetic pyrolysis process that could convert mixed plastics—such as ASR plastics—and tires into crude oil.

Over the past five years, De Laurentiis obtained rights to the technology and then began studying how it could be applied domestically. He also says he secured the help of a major oil company to test and approve the oil.

“We were able to come up with a process that doesn’t require us to preprocess the material,” De Laurentiis says, as he shares a few details about how this transpired:
 

Q: What are the most recent developments in Green EnviroTech’s story?

A: GETH now has a patent pending for some of the processes we developed, which turns the crude oil produced during the pyrolysis process into a refined, high-grade oil we call GETH oil. The process also yields syngas, carbon black and recovered steel wire (for tire processes). We recently secured an oil purchase contract from ConocoPhillips for this GETH oil, and we also received air permits from the state of California for the first U.S. conversion plant.

Q: What makes you different from your competitors?

A: All of the other companies we’re aware of with similar technologies need to grind up the material first. We don’t have to; we can load whole bales into the reactors. We figured out how to change the process from gas heat to electric heat and still make it cost-effective, and there are no emissions from the process. In addition, most other companies are making some type of fuel. We chose to deal with a refinery directly and produce oil instead of fuel.

Q: Where do you see your company five years from now?

A: We’re in the process of building the first plant in California, and the equipment has been ordered. Because of our market capitalization of $7.5 million in five years, we chose to start with a demo plant. The cost of capitalization will be considerably less after we begin delivering oil, which we expect to happen within several months. We also have 10 other locations identified for future plants.