Rebalancing act

Tim King and Ryan Skinner co-founded Carbon Cycle Investments (CCI) in 2010 with a common vision to rebalance the carbon cycle on a global scale for the benefit of all living things and for generations to come.

In 2013, CCI purchased a controlling interest of MPM Technologies Inc., through a stock purchase agreement, acquiring MPM and its wholly owned subsidiaries: an air pollution control company and a gasification technology. CCI branded the gasification technology as Carbon Cycle Power (CCP) soon after the acquisition and began to modernize the technology.

In January 2015, CCI entered into a joint venture (JV) agreement with Aurora Energy Corp. to develop an inline waste-to-electricity technology solution. The JV combines CCP’s existing photon-induced, electric arc gasification system with Aurora Energy’s multifuel combustion system. The two systems will convert carbonaceous waste to syngas, which will then be converted to electricity.

CCP currently is building a commercial scale demonstration facility in Spokane Valley, Washington, using a next-gen model of the previously deployed gasification system.

Skinner provides more details about CCP’s developments and its JV with Aurora Energy.
 

Q: What energy sectors or processes do you specialize in?

A: The CCP gasification system is a photon-induced, electric arc gasification process. This technology lends itself to materials that are more difficult to process for other gasification technologies, such as municipal solid waste, sludge, medical waste, leachate water, hazardous waste and polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs).
 

Q: What makes you different from your competitors?

A: The CCP gasification system is the only commercial gasification system in the world that can process wet material in excess of 50 percent moisture. Other notable differences:

• ability to process unsorted municipal solid waste from landfills;
• ability to manipulate composition of feedstock to accommodate downstream uses;
• ability to decontaminate soil and other inerts;
• operates at less than 25-50 percent of power required by other electric arc gasification technologies; and
• despite changes in feedstock moisture and density, the electricity consumed and gas produced stay relatively constant and simple to operate.

Coupled with Aurora Energy’s patented generation system, the combined system can process any carbonaceous material and convert it to a very large volume of electricity.