Changing World Technologies (CWT), a privately-held company, was founded in August 1997 by Brian S. Appel, the current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CWT and its subsidiaries. CWT was started primarily to develop and commercialize the thermal depolymerization technology, now referred to by the company as "thermal conversion process", developed and patented by Paul Baskis. The process produces renewable diesel fuel from agricultural and livestock wastes.
Baskis has since left CWT, but the company has retained the rights to his patents, primarily 5,269,947 - Thermal Depolymerizing Reforming Process and Apparatus.
In 1998, CWT started a subsidiary, Thermo-Depolymerization Process, LLC (TDP), which developed a demonstration and test plant for the thermal depolymerization technology. The plant opened in 1999 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Another of CWT’s subsidiaries and affiliate companies is Renewable Environmental Solutions, LLC (RES), which was formed in 2000. It is a joint venture between ConAgra Foods and CWT to develop the processing of agricultural waste and low-value streams throughout the world.[1][2] RES, now wholly owned by CWT, has the "first commercial biorefinery in the world that can make oil from a variety of waste streams,[3] principally waste from the nearby ConAgra Butterball turkey processing plant in Carthage, Missouri. According to Biomass magazine, "CWT’s thermal conversion process is a commercially viable method of reforming organic waste that converts approximately 250 tons of turkey offal and fats per day into approximately 500 barrels of renewable diesel."[4] In addition to other problems, production costs turned out to be $80 a barrel, much higher than the anticipated $15. As of 2006[update], however, the Carthage plant was expected to generate a small profit.[3]
In 2008, CWT, based in West Hempstead, New York, received the Most Innovative Patent Award in the Environment & Energy category from the Long Island Technology Hall of Fame.[4] Appel accepted the award at the 2008 awards ceremony on March 6.
On March 4, 2009 after a failed IPO attempt in February, 2009, Changing world Technologies and its three subsidiaries filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The company effectively shut down its Carthage, Missouri, plant, after it bought ConAgra's share of the facility. The company is attempting to reorganize. [5]
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