Sonoma County plastic recycler Resynergi gets financial boost to turn trash to petroleum

Resynergi CEO Brian Bauer has longed for years to rid the planet of trash on land and at sea. And now, he has $6.4 million to turn those lofty goals into reality for his Rohnert Park plastic recycling company.

The company announced Wednesday that it has raised $6.4 million in funding through Transitions First and Lummus Technology.

Transitions First is an international venture capital fund and Lummus Technology, in part, licenses proprietary petrochemicals, refining, and gas processing technologies.

The money will boost productivity in turning 5 tons of trash into four tons of a kind of clean crude oil that can be refined, blended or reacted to make a wide variety of products. The leading use will be to make fresh plastics at Resynergi’s 5,000-square-foot plant by next summer.

Beyond cutting down the size of landfill trash, Bauer’s plans have involved teaming up with a Sausalito marine nonprofit in cleanup efforts to whittle away at the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Ocean Voyages Institute brought Resynergi on board in 2020 to help with the trash vortex broken up between two piles of marine debris about 700 to 900 miles off the Pacific coast. One spot is located near Japan and the other between Hawaii and California. At 620,000-square-miles, the trash vortex has mushroomed to the size of Texas.

“I thought: ‘How can I do something more impactful for the environment?’” he said of his early career epiphany launched on a $100,000 shoestring budget.

For eight years, Bauer has worked to perfect his plastic recycling technology to convert plastics into oil — the origin of the substance.

He uses a process referred to as continuous microwave assisted pyrolysis (CMAP).

As the end of the name implies, the company heats up granulated plastic pieces with high-energy microwave technology used in the telecom industry to break down the molecular chain and turn the half-inch bits into gases. When cooled, the gases become liquid. Resynergi says the CMAP process is 20 times faster than the traditional method.

The process of plastic recycling is cyclical , considering solid plastics were once born out of liquid. In turn, the oil moves its way down the recycling pipeline to firms that turn the liquid into plastic resin pellets used in packaging.

The entire process is designed to significantly reduce the amount of waste clogging the landfills and to meet a 2022 California environmental mandate to cut a quarter of plastic packaging within the next decade. In that same time frame, Senate Bill 54 also requires 65% of all single-use plastic packaging to be recycled.

To that, the business owner indicated “the rush is on” for companies to meet these goals. Lummus Technologies is a part of that push.

“We see tremendous potential in Resynergi’s technology. Resynergi’s business aligns well with Lummus’ strategies to develop and commercialize sustainable technologies. (The) team has a passion for innovation and making a positive difference in the world. So does Lummus. This is something we wholeheartedly share,” CEO and President Leon de Bruyn said in a statement.

To Bauer, there’s never a shortage of trash — a notion that Mary Crowley, executive director of Ocean Voyages, agreed with since spending nearly a quarter century trying to eliminate the world’s worst trash pit.

When asked if the annual pilgrimages to the notorious site are making a difference, Crowley provided a big maybe.

“We have the potential of making headway. But people have to realize the ocean is an ecosystem,” she said. “Part of (that success) is if we’re able to stop people from using the ocean as a garbage pail.”

Crowley, who founded her nonprofit in 1979, is gearing up to go out again next June. The boat she charters until her proprietary one is built uses cranes and nets assembled by divers to hoist the debris on board. The boat will arrive in Oakland, where another facility will break the large pieces down for Resynergi to continue with its reduction process.

“I think Brian is a wonderful person, and his company is out to accomplish a good thing in the world,” Crowley said.

When Bauer and Crowley encountered one another in 2019, the two shared a meeting of the minds and a big mission at an environmental conference in San Diego. Both were well on their to trying to rid the world of becoming riddled with trash.

“I certainly envisioned teaching people about the ocean,” Crowley said. “I didn’t envision I’d be cleaning up garbage from it.”

Susan Wood covers law, cannabis, production, tech, energy, transportation, agriculture as well as banking and finance. She can be reached at 530-545-8662 or susan.wood@busjrnl.com