Company Name
Masada Oxynol

Company Web Site
http://www.masada.com/

Headquarters
Birmingham, AL

Latest News
3/2/08
Orange County, New York
Significant investment by Masada has been made in preparation for construction and operation of the Orange Recycling and Ethanol Production Facility in Middletown, New York, which is scheduled to start construction in 2008. The facility will be the first commercially-operated, municipal solid waste-to-ethanol plant in America. The progress to date includes:

* Securing all major permits and approvals.
* Developing a risk mitigation plan to provide credit enhancements for debt financing, including possible federal construction loan guarantees.
* Securing strong relationships with key parties required for construction, start-up and operation of the facility
* Executing numerous supply contracts, letters of intent and other commitments to secure long-term revenue sources as well as garner community support.
* Completing an extensive engineering package, including specifications and vendor quotations with commercial terms.

The facility will utilize Masada's patented CES OxyNol process to recycle or convert to beneficial use more than 90% of the waste that enters the plant. Pencor Masada OxyNol, LLC, the project entity affiliate of Masada, was named preferred vendor in the City of Middletown's search for an integrated solid waste system in a public bid process.

The Masada facility will provide a local, economically viable and environmentally responsible method of treating municipal solid waste and waste water biosolids for a consortium of municipalities linked together by the common needs of an economical and environmentally sound waste disposal. Communities that contribute waste to the facility will realize immediate savings from stabilized "tip fees", reduced collection costs, and from avoided potential environmental litigation associated with landfilling and incineration.

12/17/2007
Masada Resource Group LLC, a privately held developer of municipal solid waste-to-fuel projects, is planning to raise $60 million in project finance for its latest endeavor in the Dominican Republic.

Based in Birmingham, Ala., Masada Resource has spent the last several years working with the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Department of Energy to develop cellulosic ethanol and waste-to-fuel conversion technologies, said Chief Executive Officer Donald V. Watkins, in an interview.

"To develop the technology and get U.S. and international patents, we've spent over $41 million of internal funds," Watkins said. On Thursday the company announced that it would donate the pilot plant facilities and equipment acquired from Muscle Shoals, Ala.-based TVA to Auburn University in Auburn, Ala. The University will continue to develop biofuels based on the TVA conversion technology, Watkins said.

In the Dominican Republic, Masada is partnering with RJ Zapata & Associates S.A. to develop and operate commercial-scale waste-to-ethanol and electricity production facilities in the country. "There's a front end materials recycling facility that sorts out plastics, metal, and glass, and then the rest of the waste stream is treated through acid hydrolysis," said Watkins.

He said the municipal-solid-waste to ethanol conversion offers several advantages over food-based production techniques. "In our process, the advantage that we have is that our feedstock cost is negative or neutral," Watkins said. "In just about every area of the world, governments pay to take garbage and dispose of it." That payment, called a tipping fee, is the first revenue stream that the company's projects generate. On top of the tipping fee, Masada Resource projects also generate revenue from the sale of glass and plastics, and the process produces ethanol, lignin, and commercial carbon dioxide and ash residue that can be used in sheet rock, Watkins said.

"Here you are taking a feedstock problem which is bankrupting the corn ethanol problem and turning into a revenue source," said Eric Urbani of Black Emerald, a Bermuda-based merchant bank which has worked with Masada and the company's other financial partner, Morgan Stanley, since the early 2000s. "Our plan, now that we feel that the technology is there is to actually start building the initial plants," Urbani said. "We are looking at a Europeancentric financing structure, and also looking at smaller emerging market countries where you can go in and do a joint venture with a partner and start to get a few reference plants up and running in the next 12 to 18 months."

Funding
Morgan Stanley and Black Emerald have provided an undetermined amount of funding for Masada Oxynol.

Technology
Masada Oxynol is planning a facility in Middletown, New York, to process MSW into ethanol. After recovering recyclables, acid hydrolysis will be employed to convert the cellulosic materials into sugars. "The facility will provide both economic and environmental value," explains David Webster, Executive Vice President of Masada. From an environmental standpoint, the process reduces or eliminates the landfilling of wastes. By-products of the process include gypsum, lignin and fly ash. "Under normal operations, enough lignin will be recovered to make the plant self-sufficient in energy," notes Webster.