Ecolomondo Corporation announced the beginning of production ramp-up at its new Hawkesbury TDP facility. The Company previously performed two successful batches in the first quarter using Reactor 1. These batches, even though successful, helped technical teams identify and complete minor improvements. During this time, the technical teams also took the opportunity to make certain enhancements to both Reactor 1 and 2, preparing both for production ramp-up.

The Company tested these changes last week with a batch of 4,000 lbs with Reactor 2 and results were very positive. On a technical perspective, both Reactor 1 and 2 have now performed successful batches, leading the way to ramp-up phase. During this latest batch, the thermal processing time was 4½ hours, well below the projected 6-hour period, opening the door to the possibility of improved production efficiency in the future.

The Company expects to operate both reactors simultaneously in the next several weeks, gradually increasing reactor payloads to 15,000 lbs per batch. Once this threshold is achieved, the Company plans to process one batch per day per reactor, followed by 2 batches per day per reactor and ending with 3 batches per day per reactor, all being expected to be completed by the end of June 2023. The Hawkesbury plant is expected to perform 1980 batches per year and produce 5,300 tons of recovered carbon black (“rCB”), 42,700 barrels of oil, 1,800 tons of steel, 1,600 tons of process gas and 850 tons of fiber.

While management is very optimistic of its schedule, it cautions that the ramp-up phase may bring to light certain adjustments that may need to be corrected from time to time, which are inherent to the business. During the recent weeks, the Hawkesbury TDP facility continued to shred end-of-life tires to enable the Company to ramp-up tire shredding and produce crumb rubber needed for the TDP continuous operations. In preparing for the ramp-up and planning for continuous operations, management hired 4 new experienced TDP operators (bringing the current team to 6), 2 carbon black operators, along with additional general support staff.