PYREG and Orbital Biocarbon, a leading Pitts­burgh-based project deve­lo­p­ment and finance company, specia­li­zing in waste­water sludge disposal solu­tions for waste­water utili­ties, made public today, their partnership.

Using PYREG’s tech­no­logy, Orbital Biocarbon trans­forms waste­water sludge by non-combus­tion heating at high tempe­ra­tures to produce salable biochar, a commer­cial-grade ferti­lizer or durable buil­ding mate­rial addi­tive, rene­wable energy and CO₂ removal credits.

Last week, the EPA imple­mented new regu­la­tions manda­ting water utili­ties to monitor and elimi­nate “forever chemi­cals” (PFAS) from their water supply. PFAS chemi­cals, often found in waste­water sludge, pose risks to public health if they infil­trate the water system via land­fill leachate or runoff from land-applied waste­water sludge. PYREG’s tech­no­logy plays a crucial role in addres­sing this issue by destroying these PFAS conta­mi­nants, thus helping water utili­ties meet EPA requi­re­ments and safe­guard public health.

“Over the past 18 months, we have brought PYREG’s compact, modular and easily inte­grable tech­no­logy to scores of waste­water treat­ment plants, many of which are in varying stages of imple­men­ting our solu­tion,” said John Day, Presi­dent of Orbital Biocarbon.

“Like PYREG, Orbital Biocarbon shares our core values of inte­grity, trans­pa­rency and atten­tion to the needs and expec­ta­tions of our custo­mers. Working toge­ther for these many months has served to rein­force our convic­tion that our selec­tion of Orbital Biocarbon as a premier channel into the US waste­water sludge disposal market was and conti­nues to be an excel­lent decision,” said Jorg zu Dohna, CEO of PYREG.

Orbital Biocarbon offers a compre­hen­sive solu­tion, secu­ring private capital to cons­truct, own and operate on-site waste­water sludge disposal faci­li­ties. Waste­water utili­ties can now bypass public debt finan­cing and opera­tional risks while reali­zing value from their waste­water sludge.

Orbital Biocarbon also offers project deve­lo­p­ment and PYREG tech­no­logy solu­tions for waste­water utili­ties that prefer to own and operate these best-in-class plants.

A key compo­nent of Orbital Biocarbon’s ability to finance these sewage sludge treat­ment projects relates to its skill in obtai­ning upfront capital via the sale of future CO₂ removal credits, even before the projects that create the CO₂ removal credits are completed.

As one estab­lished project capital provider put it: “By incor­po­ra­ting modest discounts to estab­lished exch­ange-based pricing of CO₂ removal credits, we are willing to pay for CO₂ credits today, even before Orbital’s plants are completed. Such is our level of confi­dence in this approach to waste­water sludge disposal. It’s good for our carbon capture requi­re­ments, and it’s good for climate change mitigation.”

The Orbital Biocarbon/PYREG part­ner­ship reco­gnizes that the public need for their solu­tion is urgent across the United States.

Rob Luksis, Chairman of the Canons­burg-Houston Joint Sewer Autho­rity (CHJSA), located outside of Pitts­burgh, PA, commented: “When we first met with Orbital Biocarbon, LLI Engi­nee­ring and PYREG, I was surprised by how much value could be extra­cted from our waste­water sludge.

Mr. Luksis continued: “To think that the only choice that we thought we had at that time was to drive diesel truck­load, after diesel truck­load of waste­water sludge to the closest land­fill, in hopes that the land­fill could bury it, and, mind you, charge us a lot to bury it, and then hope that it did not leak out any time soon, was absurd.”