A green tech solution to combat waste mountains
© 2019 EPFL
The Management, Technology & Entrepreneurship Section welcomed, as part of its mentoring program, Vincent Keller, CEO of Clean Carbon Conversion, a company that offers a solution for transforming waste into clean syngas.
Vincent Keller recalls frightening facts: the World Bank expects waste growth of 70% by 2050. In order to participate in the fight against this inexorable growth, the CEO of Clean Carbon Conversion recently joined a team of engineers who has been working for 25 years to turn waste into energy. The proposed solution seems ideal: no emissions (no incinerators, landfills), invisible (unlike wind turbines or photovoltaic panels), no problem of recycling equipment (such as nuclear), waste treated locally (without transport) and by those who create them. In summary, Clean Carbon Conversion proposes that each locality can create its own energy by treating its waste with a machine very simple to use but very complex to develop: the UHTH, for Ultra high temperature hydrolysis.
Proposed in three models (treatment of 5, 25 or 50 tons of waste per day), the UHTH can tackle all kinds of waste (toxic or not, infectious substances, etc.), transforming them to 95% of gas clean synthetic material, which can then be used for the production of electricity or hydrogen for example. The remaining 5% represents sterile solid waste.
From innovation to marketing
Vincent Keller faces challenges to carry out this large-scale change managementwithin this company composed of a team of R&D experts. They are mainly related to the transition from a business of experts, unaccustomed to sales, to a real business oriented customer and sales process. This technology is still niche and needs visibility in order to convince investors and partners.
The CEO also emphasized that, in order to allow this company to grow serenely, it is essential not to underestimate the corporate culture, its beliefs and its experience. Its development should not only be oriented towards actions and results to be achieved, but it must make it possible to reach an ideal in its field of activity: to promote a decentralized solution, close to the consumer, to valorize waste in energy that is clean, efficient and profitable.