CARBOTURA

Technical Assessment Response
Carbotura, Inc. — Confidential under NDA

This document is furnished under Non-Disclosure Agreement. Enter the access code provided by your Carbotura contact.

 

Strictly Confidential · Under NDA

Section 4 · Question 2
the counterparty's question
“How much process wastewater (condensate) is generated, what is its chemical makeup, and how is it treated to meet local discharge standards?”
Response

The ACM plant requires no external process water. Startup uses ~2 tons of H2 to generate the internal water inventory (~17.9 t via PEM stoichiometry). Post-startup, water is internally circulated and the site is net water-producing.

Two water streams are managed separately:

  • Recombined Water — the largest fraction. H2O synthesized directly from H2 + O2 recombination in the PEM PowerBlock (2 H2 + O2 → 2 H2O; ~4,085–5,871 kg/h at the illustrative operating cases). Because Recombined Water is synthesized from elemental gases and never contacts feedstock or process streams, it carries synthesis-derived purity. Targeted delivery is RC4/RC5 grade water product (semiconductor-grade, pharma-grade WFI) or internal reuse — final grades pending stack-materials / balance-of-plant analytical qualification at FOAK.
  • Process condensate — ~1,519 kg/h at 100 TPD from primary conversion + CRSCU quench + syngas cleanup. Routed to the Water MAX Processing Train and delivered as water products at RC1 (potable minimum) through RC5 (pharma-WFI). Feedstock-borne chlorine / sulfur / nitrogen contaminants crystallize in Water MAX as salt cake product (~50.7 kg/h dry basis, NH4Cl + (NH4)2S at 100 TPD).
Water balance · interactive Sankey

Illustrative midpoint case at 100 TPD: 4,977 kg/h Recombined + 1,519 kg/h condensate = 6,496 kg/h total. All flow lands as product (RC1–RC5), salt cake, internal reuse, or community surplus — nothing to environmental discharge.

Near-zero discharge — all water is a product by design. Routine operations are designed for zero environmental discharge. Finished Water MAX product is designed to meet at least the applicable potable-water standard after treatment, analytical release, and certification — even RC1 baseline targets meet-or-beat the national environmental regulator's drinking-water standards and comparable regional benchmarks; intermediate streams (raw condensate, quench water, pre-polish fuel-cell water) are not represented as potable. Higher RC grades (RC2 industrial-DI, RC3 softened / distilled, RC4 semiconductor, RC5 pharma-WFI / ultra-pure) are engineered upgrades from the potable baseline. Recombined Water (from PEM) carries synthesis-derived purity targeting RC4/RC5; final grade qualification (including any polishing requirement) is verified analytically at FOAK. Accidental events (spills, upsets, maintenance operations, equipment failure) are not zero and are managed under the national environmental regulator's standard operator-permit conditions. The national environmental regulator's discharge limits below function as design ceilings for internal water quality as well as fallback thresholds for any inadvertent release event. Where a site's water balance runs surplus beyond internal reuse and salable water grades, that surplus is delivered as clean water to the community (see Community Augmentation callout on landing) — never as environmental discharge in routine operation.

Engineering Detail

Wastewater profile by stage:

  • Total volume: typical 3–8 m³ / tonne of feedstock, feedstock-dependent.
  • Composition ranges (pre-treatment):
    • COD: 500–3,000 mg/L
    • Total suspended solids: 100–500 mg/L
    • Heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn): individual species below the host jurisdiction's regulatory limits pre-treatment for most feedstocks; targeted removal for specific streams
    • Chloride: 500–2,500 mg/L
    • Ammonia-N: 50–300 mg/L
  • Treatment train: physical separation → chemical precipitation → biological polish → membrane final polish → delivery as RC1–RC5 water product (see Water MAX split above); no environmental discharge route in routine operation.
  • Design ceiling: the national environmental regulator's industrial effluent standard functions as an internal water-quality ceiling (not a release target); the plant exceeds requirement in most parameters even though no discharge occurs.
  • Fuel-cell water (separate from condensate): the PEM PowerBlock additionally generates ~4,085–5,871 kg/h of water from H2 + O2 (see Section 1 Q2 Boundary C). This is a clean product / reuse stream (repository water_fc slate = 34 t/d recovered), not process wastewater, and reinforces that the site is a net water producer rather than a net discharger. Recovery route, purity grades, and any surplus disposition confirmed by OEM data and the site water plan.

Zero untreated discharge. Zero contact with regional groundwater. All facilities are engineered as sealed-basin containment per Carbotura's standard site-engineering practice.

Section 4 · Question 3
the counterparty's question
“Is the remaining solid ash or char classified as hazardous waste, or does it meet local standards for safe disposal or commercial reuse?”
Response

The ACM produces near-zero waste solids in routine operation. All routine solid outputs are products routed through the Regenesis MAX™ zone. The Recyclotron output (OmniCrude™ solid phase) enters Solids Separation and splits into four fractions, each routed to its dedicated MAX Processing Train:

  • CarbonCarbon MAX Processing Train → RC1–RC5 products (activated C, thermal black, graphite, CNT, fullerenes)
  • GlassGlass MAX Processing Train → RC1–RC5 products (container, boro, fiber, ultra-pure specialty)
  • MetalsMetal MAX Processing Train → RC1–RC5 products (EAF steel + hydrometallurgical non-ferrous + REE + precious metals + trace metals)
  • Inerts → recirculated to the MCR as microwave susceptor (closed loop, not a waste stream)

There is no default disposal path in routine operation. Design intent is near-100% material recovery across the four fractions. Accidental events (maintenance operations, spent-media replacement, sorbent exhaustion, edge-case feedstock composition) are not zero and are handled under the national waste-management regulation's standard operator-license conditions, with licensed HAZMAT contingency for genuinely off-spec fractions. The historic terms “ash” and “char” are legacy catch-alls from combustion/incineration doctrine and do not describe this domain (see OmniCrude™ framing in Section 1). Where a specific site's feedstock generates unusual fractions, the decision is a product-routing decision (which MAX train / which RC grade / market-timing hold) — not a disposal decision. The waste-classification framework under the national waste-management regulation below is honored via routing to appropriate MAX modules; hazardous-stream contingency handling exists for edge cases but is not the design default.

Engineering Detail

Residue framework:

  • Volume: 10–25% of feedstock input by mass, feedstock-dependent.
  • Classification protocol: TCLP (Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure) per feedstock-batch basis.
  • Expected classification by feedstock class:
    • MSW and industrial hydrocarbon residues: predominantly non-hazardous ash suitable for cement / concrete supplementation.
    • WEEE and specific industrial streams: mineral-rich fractions targeted for critical-minerals recovery (REE, Ga, In routing where economical).
    • Ash and char: reuse pathways include cement kiln substitution, road base, mineral recovery.
  • HAZMAT exception: <5% of typical annual volume, licensed transport + landfill under contract.

Note: LLRP (legacy-landfill remediation via the future Exogenesis™ Protocol) is out of scope for this Technical Assessment — see landing scope note. Legacy-landfill residues, when addressed, are separately characterized — excavated legacy landfill mining produces different residue chemistry than fresh MSW conversion.

Beyond this response

Beyond the design-basis engineering disclosed in this Assessment, additional proprietary internals of the ACM engineering model — measured material dielectric properties, dielectric-property library, tuning parameters, specific catalyst formulations beyond generic type names, precise reagent dosing schedules, and other restricted design internals — remain trade secrets of Carbotura, Inc. and are not disclosed at any stage of the counterparty's diligence, term-sheet execution, Cornerstone Round commitment, or subsequent commercial operation. Verification of the disclosed design basis proceeds through independent third-party review under NDA, OEM guarantees, ASI System Integration Testing (SIT), commissioning, continuous emissions monitoring (CEMS), and CAFI Digital Triplet post-COD performance data. Disclosure level here is partner-safe; proprietary internals restricted in the source engineering system are excluded.