Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Pirocrack (Integrated pyrolisis and thermal cracking technology to revolutionise the MSW treatment market)
Reporting period: 2018-06-01 to 2018-09-30
Waste disposal is one of the biggest problems the world is facing. Increasing population and urbanization are accelerating drastically the generation of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW). Landfilling is the usual method but is the least recommended option since it releases GHG, contaminates the soil and ground water, produces unpleasant odors and spread pathogenic microorganisms. Recycling is unable to deal with all the garbage produced. Mass-burn incineration eliminates waste but emits highly dangerous dioxins and furans creating social opposition. Most of the gasification plants that started to operate have shut down failing to provide a solution to the problem. New clean and cost-efficient technologies to dispose this huge amount of garbage are urgently needed. PYROCRACK uses a patented Pyrolysis process to treat MSW obtaining a mixture of liquids, gases and solids with high energy content and a novel Thermal Cracking process that improves the quality of this mixture. Pyrolysis decomposes waste without using O2 which avoids pollutant emissions. Thanks to its endothermic feature it transforms waste into high value products that can be commercialized in the industry making of PYROCRACK a flagship of the Circular Economy.
The technical work packages will lead to the completion and optimization of the current scale lab plant and a real dimension pilot plant with performance and very low emissions certifications. The market analysis demonstrates its commercial viability and justify the investment in the innovation. Competitors have been studied and the market barriers introduction have been identified and mechanisms have been set to overcome them. The risks of the project at the market introduction have been analyzed and assessed and we have concluded that the project does not imply high risks and these risks can be detected and managed. The patentability analysis concludes that the PYROCRACK invention is still intact and the chance of granting a patent application exists. Summing up, this Feasibility Study demonstrates that the PYROCRACK innovation that is a breakthrough solution that can be presented in a phase II proposal to obtain a phase II Horizon 2020 SME grant.
The economic study confirms the economic feasibility of the project and provides very interesting profitability indicators: sales in the period 2021-2025 of 37.7 MM€, EBITDA 30.99 MM€. IRR of 18.84. And Return on Investment (ROI) = 3.8 (5 years). The payoff period is only 3 years.