What is Roberto Hroval's Themis Ecosystem and How it Works

There has been a lot of buzzes lately about Themis Ecosystem. But not many people know that The founder, Roberto Hroval, started with a much smaller vision. He aimed to build a waste-to-energy factory called Project Phoenix8.

But when he was about to start performing his vision, Covid emerged. Instead of giving up and waiting, he and his team used the time to brainstorm new solutions. “It accelerated time for about seven years,” the founder said, “and a completely new vision was born. Instead of Project Phoenix8 alone, a giant ecosystem emerges. Themis Ecosystem was born. We figured out a new ‘measurement unit,’ called Industrial Token, a whole new exchange, and the scaling system.”

Nevertheless, the heart of the original technology, called Product Reincarnation Technology, stayed the same. In this article, we reveal all you need to know about it.

In the heart of Project Phoenix8 lies Product Reincarnation Technology

Product Reincarnation Technology™ (PRT in short) is a technical process that converts the used, worn, discarded product (a product that is no longer usable for its original purpose due to use, damage, or failure) into a product that is new and useful. The technology refers to hydrocarbon products, such as scrap tires, plastics, oils, textiles, etc.

The input products are thermally degraded at low temperatures. Heat emanates in the form of increased temperature, resulting in products in liquid and gaseous forms, which can partially be used as energy products or for further management of the entire process.

The entire process can be described by the generally known phases of flue gas diffusion to the active site at a sufficiently long retention time to the active site of the catalyst, the course of the reaction, and the adsorption of newly formed non-toxic products onto the solid particles of the binders.

The economic, environmental, and social objective of this process is to reduce the harmful and increased impact of waste on the global ecosystem (land, oceans, seas, rivers, air, CO2 emissions, soil, forests, plants, animals, and humans) and reduce the exhaustion of natural resources of the Earth.

The PRT process is an energy-efficient solution where a part of the resulting products is re-used as a gas fuel for raising the basic reactor’s temperature and for processing input raw materials (worn-out products). The process produces flue gases (SOx and NOx), which are not released into the environment. With a unique catalyst system, the solid-gas reaction is neutralized and separated into liquid and solid particles as high-energy value substances.

Two stages of the primary process

The production process of the technological reincarnation process consists of two steps:

Step One: Molecular degradation (e.g., thermolysis or a similar process) as a “Partial Product Reincarnation Process” that degrades organic products to the basic usable raw materials.
Step Two: Molecular composition (as organic production) as “Reincarnation Completion Process,” where the new product, just like the original one, is constructed from basic usable raw materials produced in Step One.

The first and the second steps or phases represent the entire “Product Reincarnation Process.”

PRT requirements for most companies cannot be easily achieved because the process has a lower (negative) impact on CO2 “Life-Cycle Assessment.” The requirements are:

No waste;
No emissions into the environment – closed-loop system without a chimney and 0% environmentally harmful by-products;
> 85% exploitation of energy balance;
> 98% economic use;
Silent technology (below 60 dB);
Self-sufficient technology (produces enough energy to drive);
Positive and pleasant visual impact on the surroundings (without the appearance of garbage collection);
Verification of output data from a licensed agency.

The thermal treatment of worn-out products without oxygen represents an extremely complex technological solution, a technological support mechanism for the Product Reincarnation Process.

This enables the introduction of a new environmentally-friendly degradation of worn-out products and, thus, a reduction of environmental pollution with difficult-to-breakable molecular substances. It also provides energy-saving, closed-loop technology (no emissions to the air or soil) that does not contaminate the environment. Because its output characteristics represent only high-quality, economically usable, and energy-rich raw materials (fine black carbon, diesel fuel, calcium and sodium salts).

Processes of the PRT allows properly dimensioned exchange surfaces and the corresponding technological parameters for conducting the neutralization reaction with appropriate retention times. In the proper contact times, the flue gases are adsorbed to the active surfaces with sufficient efficiency. There, with adequately configured process parameters (temperatures, flow rates, holding times, reaction parameters of speed constants, etc.), the content of hazardous gases is reduced significantly below the statutory limit values valid in the European Union.

The experts support the technology

The thermal treatment of worn-out products is based on the basic thermal diffusion laws – Fick’s law, the Arrhenius dependence of individual reaction parameters, basic thermal processes of heating, and neutralization with chemical reaction in gaseous liquid and gaseous solid aggregate state. The heat is thermally bound to the cooling water and used as a preheating agent for another process.

The technological advantage is also lower process parameters (lower reaction temperatures and lower pressures) which are easier to achieve, more economically, and easily controlled with high process efficiency.

Doc. dr. Kim Ragaert, a polymer processing engineer, described the reincarnation technology above as a recycling reincarnation process. Ragaert and her team use different approaches to recycle plastics better in research. They point out that it is necessary to ensure the product is specially designed to be manufactured from recycled polymers rather than newly manufactured plastics.

Roberto Hroval will scale his business to the US, but later

One of the scientists who confirmed the requirements of PRT technology was prof. Zvonimir Steiner, dr. Sc. from J.J. Strossmayer University: »The system enables the reactor for high-efficiency use of 94%, 0% emissions while being extremely silent. The system’s advantage is in its self-efficient power supply because the produced gas from the recycling process is entirely (100%) returned to the production process. It does not need any external energy source, and it has an autonomous reactor cooling system with water obtained from its recycling-production process.«

Examples of good practice were also demonstrated by Themis Ecosystem technology, presented by the researcher and scientist Roberto Hroval, a founder of several projects at the scientific-expert advisory board of the best environmental university in the European Union, the University of Montanuniversität in Leoben-Austria in 2012.

This Themis Ecosystem solution is based on an improved technology solution called thermolysis or the basics of an improved pyrolysis process, which works at a lower temperature regime (100-150 deg. C) than pyrolysis (250-350 deg. C).

An analysis of one of the output elements produced by PRC – i.e., the beta version of the development process was also presented by the world-accredited certification body, Bureau Veritas from Switzerland.

Roberto Hroval started his European vision by building the first Themis Ecosystem factory. It will open its doors in 2023. He is planning to expand it to the US as well.