Founder Interview - Brian Bauer
Q&A with the CEO of Resynergi
Company Quick Facts
Founded: 2015
Industry: Renewable Energy
Location: Rohnert Park, CA
Tagline: Evolutionary Energy Recovery Systems
Website: resynergi.com
Social: @resynerginc
Tuesday, March 23, 2021 from Rohnert Park, CA
ZK: Tell us about your journey to ultimately launching Resynergi.
BB: Earlier in my career, I worked in Sonoma’s Telecom Valley. I had met Jason Tanne, our other co-founder, when we worked together at AFC. When the telecom market changed, we all went our separate ways, and I was working in Santa Rosa at TriAccess, where we built chips for cable TV infrastructure, while Jason grew his career in Japan developing various green technologies.
We stayed in close contact, and he would constantly bring ideas to me saying, “We should build this,” or “We should build that,” and this went on for about a decade. I was always intrigued with the idea of making a greater impact through renewables, and our years-long conversation finally culminated with our professional and personal timing aligning with our launch of Resynergi in 2015.
ZK: Resynergi is converting plastics that have traditionally not been recyclable into fuel using microwave technology – can you share more about how this process works?
BB: At a high-level, we take waste plastics that are not recycled and convert them into diesel fuel and a gasoline-type output that can be used to make plastics again. Our core difference in the market is that we use microwaves for heating in a process called pyrolysis, whereas traditional plastics to fuel operations use coal, propane, or wood for heating. These traditional systems are inefficient from a heating standpoint – but, with microwaves, we can provide targeted heating within our reactor to be much more efficient. Just like your microwave at home, where the food is the only thing that gets hot, so it is with our core.
As it gets hotter at the center of the microwave reactor, we mechanically mix in plastic chips which are converted into a gas, then condensed into liquid products. Using our system, we can process 10x faster than with more traditional heating approaches. This all translates into our ability to utilize a relatively small reactor as part of compact, modular system that is about the size of a shipping container, which is a great advantage versus having to construct a giant plant.
ZK: Is the system designed to be mobile, or does it have to remain fixed, just in a smaller size?
BB: Right now, we are operating in a fixed capacity, but our system is designed to be mobile and we today have the ability to move and be operational in a two to three day period, as we have done in our work with Recology. Obviously, you can’t build a plant in three days, so there are significant benefits and possibilities that are unlocked with our modular feature, and it’s why many in the renewables community are so excited by the prospects of Resynergi.
Our system will be able handle around 20 tons of plastic per day, which really is a sweet spot for medium-sized cities that have a handful of waste management centers. With large plants that have been constructed to handle 100+ tons per day, the cost and logistics of transportation of waste to those plants is a huge challenge, as is ensuring the continuity of supply with a waste class that can see large price fluctuations. We’re well positioned as a solution to these challenges.
ZK: Where do your plastic inputs come from, and where do your outputs go when you’ve completed the process?
BB: Our inputs are either free or, in many cases, we are being paid significantly to take it. China’s decision to restrict imports on waste plastic for disposal has led to an uptick in our intake of post-consumer waste, but we’re also taking in a large amount of post-industrial waste, which includes plastic wrappings and plastic packaging with items such as labels that traditionally are not recycled. We’re also really proud of our work with non-profits that are pulling plastics out of the ocean, and we are exploring solutions that we’d build in Hawaii to make an even greater impact with this work.
The customers for our outputs are also varied and growing, and today range from local farmers and welders to large shipping companies and refineries located in southern California.
ZK: So much of the technology you worked on in the telecom industry you brought with you to renewables – can you tell us more about the overlap between the two ?
BB: One of the most critical factors in telecom is reliability. We would monitor our systems 24/7 and had many processes, procedures and alarms in place to ensure we were up all the time. We applied that same type of discipline to building the Resynergi solution. Back in the 90s and early 2000s, we were constantly improving our systems and were learning all of the time by doing – we may not have called it AI or ML, but it was the same idea.
If you take these concepts and apply them to industrial recycling, it means we are building a simple, reliable, safe solution, which are key underpinnings to any novel approach to something. Our telecom thinking and experience certainly has translated well to our current efforts.
ZK: Resynergi is headquartered in Rohnert Park and you have additional facilities around the North Bay. What does it mean to you to be a Sonoma entrepreneur?
BB: Before arriving in Sonoma county, I was working in Belgium for a telecom company. I had my sights set on returning to California, and my wife and I were constantly looking at different places and different job opportunities. And here we saw a hotbed of telecom companies forming and growing around Sonoma county, which was incredible because we knew how spectacular Sonoma was. To be clear, we moved here first for the community, and second for telecom, but after we arrived, we knew we were going to find ways to retire here.
The North Bay is an incredible place to do business – there may not be as many local resources as in some other Bay Area locations, but there’s phenomenal talent from telecom to med device to food and beverage, there’s a group of committed local entrepreneurs who insist on building successful companies here, and there’s a natural beauty that permeates your way of being, and it’s important to preserve that.
ZK: What would you say is unique about the North Bay’s business culture?
BB: Sonoma is such an incredible asset for local companies when they have customers or partners visit – it completely breaks the ice when we can convene at a world-class winery or microbrewery or just be anywhere outdoors in the beauty of Sonoma. I also find that entrepreneurs, workers, and businesses are more balanced here, and that’s very powerful for everyone’s well being.
Compared to Silicon Valley, where I find that so much of everyone’s focus is solely on their company, there is so much community involvement here alongside everyone’s day job. So many of the business leaders I know are members of their local rotary club, they bike to work, and they’re present as leaders in their community. Our local government officials also take an interest in and are supportive of our businesses – you don’t have that in a lot of places that are much larger and where everyone operates much more anonymously.
Zachary Kushel is Founder & Managing Partner of Marin Sonoma Impact Ventures.
Click here to subscribe to receive future pieces.
