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A company once hailed as the future in waste management for the City of Ottawa is trying to re-establish itself as a player in the green energy industry after burning through more than $300 million in its unsuccessful first attempt.
Plasco is trying to make a comeback.
Now calling itself Plasco Conversion Technologies Ltd., the company is taking a new approach to its business and is differentiating itself from its earlier days as Plasco Energy Group Inc.
While it is paring back on its grand aspirations, the company’s founder says he still believes in its technology, which is supposed to burn garbage and turn it into electricity and a type of synthetic gas that can also be burned.
“Plasco, as it was, had been targeting to be in the business of building, operating and owning energy from waste plants using its own technology,” company founder Rod Bryden told the Citizen.
“We have been able to confirm to our satisfaction and some others’ that the product was good then and is good now. We have done very limited things that have simplified the product and made it more easily produced, lower cost and more easily sold.”
Bryden said the firm is being funded by a number of wealthy individuals. He would not provide any specifics and is under no obligation to do so, as Plasco is a privately held business venture.
The earlier incarnation of Plasco planned to secure contracts with municipalities that were looking for ways to deal with their waste. Through those contracts, the company wanted to secure land, build waste-to-energy conversion facilities and sell electricity to the public grid.
Plasco’s new business model will instead see the company sell its technology to municipalities and to other businesses that already have waste-management facilities, or are in the process of constructing them.
The move would see the company selling a patented product. Bryden said he hopes the slimmed-down business model will be more attractive.
Bryden bought what remained of Plasco in September 2015 for $1. The company is being held under Bryden’s new holding company, RMB Advisory Services Inc.
In 2005, the original Plasco had eight employees led by Bryden, who was set on proving that the company’s proprietary technology could use plasma — a very high-temperature gas — to convert garbage into energy.
By 2008, Bryden had convinced city council, led by then-mayor Larry O’Brien, to provide city land for a demonstration project. After years of trials, Plasco received the certification it needed from the Ministry of the Environment in 2011, which allowed the company to move ahead with a commercial plant.
Part of the deal with the city required the company to secure the financing needed to build the large-scale commercial plant by the end of 2014. Had the company met the commitment, the city had agreed to pay Plasco as much as $9.1 million a year to take as much as 300 tonnes of garbage a day. The company attracted more than $300 million in investment over the years to help fund its ambitious agenda.
With the support of city council waning and unable to secure even more funds, Plasco sought protection from its creditors under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) in 2015 after it could no longer meet its financial commitments.
The newly reshaped version of Plasco no longer carries a majority of its debts nor has any ownership of the company’s failed Trail Road test facility.
However, the firm is making interest payments to two secured investors in the original Plasco. Since the firm has no sales or customers yet, those payments are being made from the cash that has been pumped into the new Plasco by its new investors.
The reformed company, which employs eight people, resides in an office building on Legget Drive in Kanata. Bryden said the firm is looking to add at least four more employees immediately.
vpilieci@postmedia.com
查看原文...
Plasco is trying to make a comeback.
Now calling itself Plasco Conversion Technologies Ltd., the company is taking a new approach to its business and is differentiating itself from its earlier days as Plasco Energy Group Inc.
While it is paring back on its grand aspirations, the company’s founder says he still believes in its technology, which is supposed to burn garbage and turn it into electricity and a type of synthetic gas that can also be burned.
“Plasco, as it was, had been targeting to be in the business of building, operating and owning energy from waste plants using its own technology,” company founder Rod Bryden told the Citizen.
“We have been able to confirm to our satisfaction and some others’ that the product was good then and is good now. We have done very limited things that have simplified the product and made it more easily produced, lower cost and more easily sold.”
Bryden said the firm is being funded by a number of wealthy individuals. He would not provide any specifics and is under no obligation to do so, as Plasco is a privately held business venture.
The earlier incarnation of Plasco planned to secure contracts with municipalities that were looking for ways to deal with their waste. Through those contracts, the company wanted to secure land, build waste-to-energy conversion facilities and sell electricity to the public grid.
Plasco’s new business model will instead see the company sell its technology to municipalities and to other businesses that already have waste-management facilities, or are in the process of constructing them.
The move would see the company selling a patented product. Bryden said he hopes the slimmed-down business model will be more attractive.
Bryden bought what remained of Plasco in September 2015 for $1. The company is being held under Bryden’s new holding company, RMB Advisory Services Inc.
In 2005, the original Plasco had eight employees led by Bryden, who was set on proving that the company’s proprietary technology could use plasma — a very high-temperature gas — to convert garbage into energy.
By 2008, Bryden had convinced city council, led by then-mayor Larry O’Brien, to provide city land for a demonstration project. After years of trials, Plasco received the certification it needed from the Ministry of the Environment in 2011, which allowed the company to move ahead with a commercial plant.
Part of the deal with the city required the company to secure the financing needed to build the large-scale commercial plant by the end of 2014. Had the company met the commitment, the city had agreed to pay Plasco as much as $9.1 million a year to take as much as 300 tonnes of garbage a day. The company attracted more than $300 million in investment over the years to help fund its ambitious agenda.
With the support of city council waning and unable to secure even more funds, Plasco sought protection from its creditors under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) in 2015 after it could no longer meet its financial commitments.
The newly reshaped version of Plasco no longer carries a majority of its debts nor has any ownership of the company’s failed Trail Road test facility.
However, the firm is making interest payments to two secured investors in the original Plasco. Since the firm has no sales or customers yet, those payments are being made from the cash that has been pumped into the new Plasco by its new investors.
The reformed company, which employs eight people, resides in an office building on Legget Drive in Kanata. Bryden said the firm is looking to add at least four more employees immediately.
vpilieci@postmedia.com
查看原文...
