Sydney-based early-stage waste recycling technology company ARC Ento Tech has raised $5 million in a funding round led by Philippines industrial supplies company MCCI Corporation.
ARC’s novel biological and mechanical process is designed to extract value from mixed solid waste which usually goes straight to landfill. The process uses black soldier flies to first recover nutrients from food waste and other digestible organic material. This effectively decontaminates plastics, textiles and wood which are then recovered mechanically and converted through a drying process into a high carbon composite material which ARC calls refuse derived reductant (RDR).
RDR can be used as a low-cost alternative to high grade coal used to provide carbon in metals production. Meanwhile, the soldier fly larvae are harvested and converted to oil which can be refined to make bio-diesel.
ARC currently has an eight-tonnes-a-day capacity demonstration plant running at Somersby north of Sydney and has been contracted to develop a 25-tonnes-a-day plant for the nearby Hawkesbury City Council.
ARC co-founder and managing director Ramon Atayde said the modular plants can easily be enlarged and he expects the Hawkesbury plant to later be enlarged to 25-tonnes-a-day capacity.
The new capital will help ARC establish plants at additional landfill sites across the Sydney region which it plans to use to prove the commercial value of its process and attract additional licensing deals.
The company has already secured deals to provide its technology to three sites in North America and Africa.
Atayde says the ARC technology offers extra value as it can deal with contaminated waste which other recycling systems cannot, it substantially reduces the volume of waste going to landfill and it reduces the risk of landfill sites polluting water catchments.
While RDR could replace coal in all metals production, Atayde says the small volumes currently available means it is not feasible to target large scale production processes such as steelmaking. The technology is, however, attracting interest as a lower-cost alternative to coal for smaller scale operations such as foundries that cast metal products, hence the strategic interest of MCCI.
Australia’s waste industry deals with around 75.8 million tonnes of waste per year – nearly three tonnes per person – highlighting the need to develop a circular economy.
Atayde says lots of work is being done to prevent recyclable materials from entering the waste-stream and early retrieval but ARC’s technology is one of very few focused on generating value and reducing volumes at the end of the stream.
“By transforming waste into valuable resources, we’re tackling monumental issues like carbon emissions and landfill while building a business model that can be implemented by industry and governments globally,” he said.
Founded in March 2020, ARC has now raised a total of $6.25 million. The company is currently listed on the secondary trading platform Primary Markets. Atayde says he believes the business could expand to the stage at which it would consider an IPO and ASX listing by late 2025.
Image: ARC Ento Tech managing director Ramon Atayde with the company’s technology.