Frequently Asked Questions

Below is a list of questions that are frequently asked of our team. The questions are broken down into four main categories: Background, Process, Environmental, and Future. If you have additional questions or would like further clarification, please reach out to us using the contact box on the home page.

What motivates your company?

What is The Plastic Waste Crisis?

Revive Energy's founders all grew up in the rural Pacific Northwestern, United States. Each of the founders are avid outdoorsmen. Revive Energy's engineer and co-founder Ron Drake has dedicated his life to environmental clean-up with over 12 major patents in the field.

The founders grew tired of seeing the devastation that plastic waste is causing to our planet and not seeing anyone do anything about it. Our sole mission is to clean-up all plastic waste as it is being produced but ultimately every piece of plastic on the planet.

Currently, trying to clean-up plastic waste is similar to trying to empty a bathtub using a spoon with the faucet still running. Once we have full control over the inflow we can deal with the existing plastic in the environment.

The world is producing over 300 million tons of plastic every year. With today's current technology and the current barriers and limitations to plastic recycling, only 9% of that plastic is recycled every year.

Half of the plastic that is produced annually is used for a very brief time and then thrown away. Over 8 million tons of plastic are dumped into our oceans every year.

Plastic takes up to 1,000 years on average to fully decompose, during that process it breaks down into toxic micro and nano plastics that are polluting our air and water. Thousands of species are being affected and some even forced to extinction because of the lack of responsible plastic disposal.

What is Revive Energy's Solution?

What is Pyrolysis?

Revive Energy believe that the best way to clean up waste quickly, is to add economic value to it..

Revive Energy transforms this toxic waste into usable fuel using a chemical process called "pyrolysis". Pyrolysis simply gassifys the plastic in a zero oxygen chamber, converting it into valuable fuel and natural gas.

Revive Energy will then partner with a power company that is located next door to the plant that safely uses the syn gas to produce electricity. We will send the liquid hydrocarbons to a refinery for production, increasing the supply in our strained energy markets. This will be the final destination for any and all plastic coming to Revive's facility. This allows consumers to have total control over their waste and rest easy knowing that it will never find its way into the environment.

Did you know that plastic is almost entirely comprised of oil? The process of pyrolysis simply converts the plastic back into its original state as oil.

Pyrolysis is defined as the thermal decomposition of materials at elevated temperatures in an inert atmosphere. It involves a change of chemical composition. The word is coined from the Greek-derived elements pyro "fire" and lysis "separating."

Please visit our Pyrolysis page for further information and an informative video created by the American Chemistry Council.

Process

Why hasn't this already been done?

What types of plastic are processed by our company?

With the plastic crisis ever growing it seems like something someone else would have thought of?

The truth is that pyrolysis technology has existed for nearly 100 years. It is estimated that there are nearly 1,200 pyrolysis plants in over 70 nations. The problem is that most of these plants are inefficient, gas fired, batch plants. These plants actually burn the syngas produced by the plant to heat the remaining plastic often creating more environmental damage than it solves.

Many of these plants have produced a dirty oil that is burned in a wide variety of productions resulting in excessive pollution and products of incomplete combustion.

Revive Energy is capable of taking any and all forms of plastic. We have all heard of the 7 types of plastic but in reality it is many more.

Although #7 is listed as its own category of plastic it encompasses many additional types. Currently only #1 and #2 plastics are able to be recycled with modern recycling techniques.

Revive Energy can process all of these types of plastic into a valuable fuel to be transformed into electricity.

Where Are Your Plants be Made?

What are the byproducts of pyrolysis?

We believe in making our machines in America for a variety of reasons. First and foremost we want to be able to supervise the process to insure quality and environmental responsibility.

Revive Energy was founded during a national quarantine due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Our fellow Americans are struggling right now and we want to get them back to work.

Because our technology is so specialized and proprietary it is being custom built by a world-class fabricator in Missoula, MT where two of the founders call home.

Pyrolysis produces 3 primary products:

Synthetic Gas
Liquid Fuel
Carbon Black

For more detailed information on the byproducts, their chemical makeup, and uses please visit our Pyrolysis page.

Environmental

Is Pyrolysis Incineration?

No! Pyrolysis is defined as: " The first step in gasification and combustion, occurs in the absence or near absence of oxygen, and it is thus distinct from combustion (burning), which can take place only if sufficient oxygen is present."

Oxygen is required for combustion that is needed to "burn" anything. In fact, if there is oxygen in one of our plants, it is in need of shut-down and immediate maintenance. Pyrolysis does not work with combustion. Revive Energy is very carbon conscious and utilizes state of the art scrubbing systems that remove any emissions from the process.

What is our carbon footprint?

The Revive Energy pyrolysis process does not burn any fuel, does not release greenhouse gasses, and therefore has zero carbon footprint.

Our energy use is derived from electrical power, and we are merely converting one form of chemical potential energy (plastic) into other, and more valuable, forms (syngas, oil, and carbon black) of chemical potential energy.

The pyrolysis process itself produces no carbon dioxide, or other greenhouse gas emissions. The pyrolysis process converts large quantities of intractable waste into valuable fuels for beneficial use.

By eliminating a huge source of dangerous environmental pollution, and by converting it to valuable fuels, without generating any greenhouse gasses.

How does Revive Energy reduce carbon emissions?

Once a power company partners with Revive Energy and purchases our fuels, they will generate a carbon footprint. Their footprint will be approximately equivalent to the carbon footprint that they would generate using purchased conventional fuels such as natural or biomass gas. However, this is only part of the story.

Once you include the carbon footprint associated with exploration, extraction, refining, and transportation of purchased alternative fuels, then the carbon footprint of the Revive Energy pyrolysis fuels and the generating facility would still be much lower than the carbon footprint of the generating facility. In addition, they will eliminate the carbon footprint associated with the supply train of purchased, refined fuels.

In short:

The Revive Energy pyrolysis plant emits no greenhouse gasses, has zero carbon footprint.
Use of Revive Energy fuel products by others, substantially reduces the carbon footprint of those fuel consumers, by eliminating the carbon dioxide and methane emissions associated with acquisition and supply chain activities associated with purchased refined fuels.
The plastic used to generate fuel does not have to be fracked, drilled, or transported offshore eliminating the environmental risk of transporting fuel.

Background

Future

Can Revive Take Tires/Rubber

Landfill Mining and Ocean Cleanup?

With the Plastic Pyrolysis Plants, Revive Energy is not able to process Tires but could take small household rubbers and scrap rubbers. Revive Energy has every intention on taking car tires in the future. Once we have a few more site locations on plastics we will build plants that are configured for Tires.

The process is essentially the same but the equipment is slightly different for tire production. Tires are a major environmental concern, as billions of them sit in landfills for hundreds of years. However, tires currently are placing less of an environmental burden on the plant.

The most important step that we can take as a company is to to intercept all of the plastic currently being produced and disposed of. 8 million tons of new plastic are being dumped into our oceans every year. Processing the plastic currently being discarded before it gets to the environment is the first step towards solving the plastic waste crisis.

Once we have a handle on the inflows of plastic waste before it pollutes the earth we can begin cleaning up the existing plastic in the environment. Revive Energy has many inspirational future goals to not only clean up the oceans, but also mining landfills of plastic, insuring it doesn't pollute the water table over the coming centuries.