Investor Insights
Emergent Waste Solutions presents a compelling opportunity for impact investing, leveraging a disruptive technology that promises to become a profitable solution to the world’s growing waste problem.
Overview
Emergent Waste Solutions (EWS) is a Canadian company that converts waste into marketable products using its proprietary Advanced Thermolysis System (ATS). The technology uses materials like municipal solid waste, tires, plastics, biomass and livestock waste as feedstock and converts these into valuable products, such as activated carbon, carbon black, biochar, bio-coal, syngas and bio-oil.
The company’s North American facility is in Ruby Creek, British Columbia, which has entered commercial production and achieved the first sales of its biochar. The plant, which has a CaPEx of $3.5 million has attractive economics with potential revenues at full operation of over $1.6 million and net profit before tax of $721,000 (to finance its first plant, EWS sold 54 percent interest in revenue from the plant to investors.). In addition, the company has a strong pipeline of projects in excess of $100 million in CapEx. This includes three projects in Canada and international projects in Brazil, Ghana and the Philippines.
These projects will process agriculture waste, wood waste, used tires and municipal solid waste, and depending on feedstock will produce biochar, bio-oil, bunker-grade diesel, renewable natural gas and carbon black.
EWS is pursuing several global revenue models: 100 percent ownership, the sale of its ATS plants; and joint ventures, where Emergent aims to hold a minimum of 50 percent ownership of a project. Such JV arrangements will allow EWS to maintain optimal plant operating parameters, ensure maintenance and plant upgrades, have a national and international sales strategy, and execute new product development to achieve maximum profits.
The company expects significant revenue growth over the next few years, forecasting an increase in revenue. On top of this, the margins in the business are predicted to remain high and increase as the scale of the business grows and as it focuses on sales of specialty grow blends versus commodity biochar.
According to EWS, the traditional waste treatment and disposal service industry in Canada alone was valued at $5.1 billion in 2022. Even if EWS was to capture a small percentage of this market, the potential revenue numbers are large. EWS believes the Canadian market will need more than 3,500 plants to treat different waste streams. For example, waste wood biomass would need more than 1,700 plants, municipal solid waste (MSW) will need over 750 plants, and livestock manure will need more than 600 plants.
The company’s ATS technology has lucrative economics. An ATS5000 plant (processing 120 Tonnes per day for 330 days per year) using MSW as feedstock has the potential to generate nearly $55 million in annual revenues with an operating income of about $42 million.
EWS offers investors an attractive ESG investment opportunity to benefit from the growing demand for renewable natural gas, biochar, bio-coal and carbon black.
Company Highlights
- Emergent Waste Solutions (EWS) is a private Canadian company focused on converting waste into valuable carbon-based commodities, including renewable natural gas (RNG), oils, and bunker grade diesel.
- The company boasts of a disruptive Advanced Thermolysis System (ATS) technology (patent pending) to process various feedstock such as municipal solid waste, tires, plastics, biomass and livestock waste, and convert them into useful products such as activated carbon, carbon black, biochar, bio-coal, syngas and bio-oil.
- The company’s project in Ruby Creek, BC is operational and has achieved commercial production with sales of biochar. Moreover, the company has a robust pipeline of projects both in Canada and internationally.
- The market opportunity for EWS’s technology is very large. Traditional waste treatment market in Canada is valued at $5.1 billion with an estimate of over 3,500 plants needed to treat various streams of waste in Canada.
- EWS offers investors an attractive ESG investment opportunity to benefit from the growing demand for renewable natural gas, biochar, bio-coal and carbon black. The company has entered into an amalgamation agreement with Buscando Resources pursuant to which Buscando will acquire all of the outstanding shares in the capital of EWS by way of a three-cornered amalgamation, subject to the terms and conditions of the Amalgamation Agreement.
Key Project
ATS Technology and Manufactured Products
EWS uses its patent-pending, proprietary Advanced Thermolysis System (ATS) technology, as a superior alternative to incineration and creates valuable products without creating pollution. It uses a process whereby carbon-based feedstock such as wood fiber is placed in an oxygen-deprived reactor. The heated feedstock cracks at the molecular level and separates into chemical components – carbon, oil and renewable natural gas. EWS’s technology uses a combination of steam, direct heat, indirect heat and medium pyrolysis, ensuring a complete penetration of the feedstock and a complete separation of the constituent elements.
Based on the different feedstocks, EWS’s technology can produce different products such as renewable natural gas, biocoal, biochar, carbon black, diesel and bio-oil. These products are explained below in brief.
1. Biochar: A solid material derived from carbon-based biomass. It is a pure form of charcoal and, due to its porous structure, has numerous uses and benefits.
2. Carbon Black: ATS technology recaptures and purifies the carbon black in waste rubber tires.
It is mainly used as a reinforcement agent in the manufacturing of rubber tires and also used as a pigment and as an additive in plastics, paints and ink pigment.
3. Bio-Oil: Bio-Oil is produced when biomass is processed using ATS technology. The product generated using ATS has less moisture and is a relatively purer product compared to other technologies.
4. Green Diesel: When tires or plastics are processed with the ATS, a dark-colored light diesel is produced. It can be blended with regular diesel and used for diesel generators and off-road machinery.
5. Biochar Grow Medium Blends: In conjunction with Coastal Raintree Consulting, EWS has developed a line of Grow Medium Blends with a biochar foundation, specifically a Cannabis Blend, a Germination Blend, and a Potting Blend.
6.
Bio coal: It is a biomass fuel and a replacement for thermal coal (used to make electricity). It is also an alternative to coking coal for use in steel and other metallurgical industries. Moreover, thermal power plants can use bio coal without significant changes to the thermal coal plants. Bio coal burns cleaner and results in less GHG discharge.
Management Team
Kevin Hull – CEO and Director
Kevin Hull holds a degree in business administration, and has extensive experience in mining and environmental technologies and has sales and marketing expertise. He has consulted for companies and developed marketing strategies. Before founding EWS, he was active in capital markets and was instrumental in securing $20 million from a state-owned Chinese enterprise into a Canadian junior resource company on the TSXV.
Brian Gusko – Director and VP of Finance
Brian Gusko has more than 15 years of experience in capital markets and has helped raise over $50 million for various firms. He has served on the board of at least 10 public companies and has also served as the CEO and CFO for several public companies. He was instrumental in taking Biome Grow public, which upon listing was valued at over $200 million.
Dan Becher – Director
Dan Becher holds a diploma in instrumentation and control systems from British Columbia Institute of Technology. He has more than 37 years of rich experience having worked in industrial chemical plants in varied roles of engineering design and maintenance of both process control and electrical systems. His experience is valuable in the areas of plant operations, maintenance and design enhancements.
Serge Borys – Director
Serge Borys holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce from the University of British Columbia and a law degree from the University of Alberta. Since 2005, he has been a principal in 77 Group Corp., a US corporation having substantial real estate holdings in China. He has a comprehensive understanding of technology and the patent process.
Alicia Passmore – VP Manufacturing
Alicia Passmore has extensive training and experience in setting up and working with manufacturing processes, specifically with implementing LEAN manufacturing techniques. She has rich experience in the vitamin and supplement industry, which includes the formulation of new products.
Benjamin Ryder – Chief Operations Officer
Benjamin Ryder has more than 23 years of experience in administration and project management. He received project management training at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. He has previously worked with Bridgewater Bank where he was a key figure in the development of the credit card division. He has experience in developing large web applications and show homes for major property developments.
Rhonda Hyslop – Engineer
Rhonda Hyslop has received training as a chemical engineer and has primarily worked in industrial wastewater treatment plants, where her responsibilities have included facility design to commercial scale-up. She owns two patents and has worked on lab-scale to pilot-scale commercialization projects.
Jason Rossett
Jason Rosset is the founder of Accuworx Inc. and Sure Horizon Environmental Inc. (two leading North American environmental service companies, which are now part of NYSE listed GFL Environmental Inc.), and current chairman of Sluyter Company Ltd., a chemical manufacturer.
He is also former chair of Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) Upper Canada and Maple Leaf Chapters. YPO is a global organization of 22,000 current and former CEOs; their companies represent approximately 10 percent of global GDP.
Dr. David Galvez – Advisor
Dr. David Galvez received his doctorate in plant physiology from the University of Alberta, and is a seasoned expert in the formulation and commercialization of botanical-based products using traditional, non-traditional, and functional ethnobotanical plant extracts. He has developed and launched commercial products in the dietary supplement market for pain relief, sleeplessness, relaxation, and anxiety management, both in capsule and drink formats. Currently, he is focused on the nano-emulsification of cannabinoids and terpenes, the development of novel beverages, and securing research partnerships with academic institutions.
Dr. Anayansi C. Cohen-Fernandez – Advisor
Dr. Anayansi Cohen-Fernandez is a biologist and senior reclamation specialist. She is the director of Coastal Raintree Consulting and a sessional instructor at the SFU/BCIT MSc. in ecological restoration. She specializes in land reclamation and restoration planning including reclamation following mining, oil, gas, energy, urban, forestry and agricultural disturbances. She has more than 10 years of environmental consulting and resource management experience.
Dr. Amir M. Dehkhoda – Advisor
Dr. Amir Dehkhoda has a PhD in chemical engineering and has extensive research and development experience in applied electrochemistry, material development, wastewater treatment and catalysis. He is currently an industrial postdoctoral fellow with a Richmond, BC-based biotech company that focuses on the characterization and optimization of wood-based nanomaterial for electrochemical energy storage and wastewater treatment applications. He has significant experience in the development of value-added carbon material from biomass waste.
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