Executive Briefing · For City Officials
Phoenix Advanced Circular Manufacturing
A partnership briefing prepared for the City of Phoenix · Maricopa County
Advanced Circular Manufacturing engagement in the Phoenix metropolitan area.
Carbotura · 8-minute walkthrough · Confidential briefing for authorized officials
The 30-second version
One partnership. One classification shift. Three configuration choices.
Three build stages: sizing → two contract options → capital cost. Press Space or → to walk the Council through each stage.
Configurations available
400 / 1,000 / 2,000
TPD · elected at the Deployment Study, not now · city streams alone cover Phase Initial 3.5×
the CSA · Beneficiation Fee (recommended)
$100/ton
City pays Carbotura per ton delivered · receives Circular Royalty™ back (120%→150%) · recommended
$100/ton
Beneficiation Fee per ton delivered · Circular Royalty™ from Month 13 · +1pp/yr
Capital cost to Phoenix
$0
Carbotura funds 100% of the facility build · both options
Category
Manufacturing — not waste.
This distinction determines how the facility is permitted, which regulator has oversight, and what the fiscal architecture looks like.
ACM IS
A manufacturing process
- Microwave Catalytic Reforming, anoxic (oxygen-free), sub-atmospheric
- Converts municipal material inputs into synthetic graphite, graphene compounds, recovered minerals
- Classified under manufacturing NAICS 325180 / 325998 / 327992 / 331110 / 331314 / 331492
- Regulated as manufacturing under ADEQ and federal RCRA §1004(27) · 40 CFR §261.2(e) exclusion pathway
- The 30-year CSA is a royalty-producing asset for the City of Phoenix — it replaces the current waste liability on the City's books with a recurring revenue stream
ACM IS NOT
A waste-handling operation
- Not incineration — combustion mechanically impossible in the anoxic reactor
- Not gasification, pyrolysis, or waste-to-energy
- Not classified under solid-waste NAICS 562212 / 562213 / 562219 / 562920
- Does not compete with, replace, or interfere with the City's existing collection operations or the Republic Services / WM disposal relationships
- Does not require new City-supplied transport infrastructure — existing collection routes simply reroute from current transfer/disposal destinations to the ACM facility
The relationship · supplier and buyer
Phoenix supplies the feedstock. Carbotura is the buyer.
The 30-year CSA is a supply agreement, not a service contract. The City of Phoenix becomes the manufacturing feedstock supplier to the ACM facility; Carbotura is the manufacturer that material stream transfers to under the CSA. Beyond capital, Carbotura brings the industrial platform: manufacturing employment, US critical-materials production, and a circular material loop — located in Phoenix.
$
100% capital funding
Carbotura funds the ACM facility build, site works, and equipment. Phoenix commits no capital, borrows no funds, and pledges no full-faith-and-credit backing.
◆
Build-Own-Operate
30-year Circular Supply Agreement. Carbotura owns and operates the facility. Environmental liability, closure obligations, and O&M all sit with Carbotura.
◈
Manufacturing jobs
Direct permanent skilled-trades and technician positions at the ACM facility — operators, process engineers, quality/lab, maintenance, logistics. Scales with configuration; specifics confirmed at the Deployment Study. Phoenix Phase Initial is 400 TPD — a substantial permanent manufacturing workforce from day one.
◉
Critical materials & minerals
The ACM facility produces synthetic graphite, graphene compounds, and recovered minerals — strategic domestic supply for battery, EV, and industrial supply chains. Places Phoenix on the US critical-materials map.
◐
Circularity
Closes the material loop at the community level. The upstream inputs to graphite, graphene, and mineral products are decoupled from mining and imports. Phoenix's material stream becomes the manufacturing feedstock.
◇
Regulatory partnership
Carbotura leads the Regulatory Predicate Transition — the joint work with ADEQ and EPA Region 9 to confirm manufacturing classification alongside site permitting.
The counter-flow (recommended for Phoenix)
What Phoenix receives back — under the CSA.
The 30-year CSA is a royalty-producing asset that replaces a waste liability on the City's books. Under the CSA — the recommended election for Phoenix — the City pays a per-ton fee to Carbotura under the manufacturing arrangement, and Carbotura pays a per-ton royalty back that always exceeds the fee from Year 2 onward. At Phoenix scale the widening spread compounds to a materially larger 30-year stream.
1
Circular Royalty™
Carbotura pays the City 120% of the current-year Beneficiation Fee per ton in Year 1, rising +1 percentage point every year (Year 2: 121%, Year 30: 149%). Uncapped. Paid monthly, 13 months in arrears.
2
Widening spread
Because the multiplier applies to the escalated fee, the royalty-minus-fee spread widens every year for the full 30-year term. This is a proven mathematical property of the formula, not a projection.
3
Take-or-Pay floor
Asymmetric Take-or-Pay: if tonnage falls short, the City still receives the royalty at the guaranteed minimum. Predictable revenue stream through the 30-year term.
4
Optional Exogenesis™ add-on
If the City engages the 27th Avenue Landfill (closed 2004, City-owned) for Exogenesis™ legacy remediation, a separate Legacy Remediation Royalty of $50/ton (on legacy mass, +1%/yr) stacks on top. Available under the CSA. Subject to Characterization Study and mutual agreement.
The counter-flow · (alternative)
What Phoenix receives back — under the CSA.
The 30-year CSA is a royalty-producing asset that replaces a waste liability on the City's books. substitutes an for the Beneficiation Fee: at CSA execution the City commits feedstock, deeds the ACM site land, and grants property-tax abatement for the 30-year term (recorded with the Maricopa County Recorder under ARS §33) — and pays nothing per ton delivered. In exchange, Phoenix receives a flat-rate royalty on every ton supplied — and the elimination of the disposal expense itself becomes the utility.
1
Circular Royalty™
. Paid monthly, 13 months in arrears from first feedstock delivery. Uncapped over the 30-year term. ~$14.6M/yr at Phase Initial ramp, growing to ~$19.3M/yr by Year 30.
2
Zero current-cash exposure
Beneficiation Fee is waived — $0 per ton. No monthly fee outflow, no operating-budget line item to fund, no grant application to write. The redirected material stream costs Phoenix nothing to supply.
3
Waste elimination = free utility
The City's Fully-Loaded Cost of Disposal (~$105/ton estimated) disappears on every redirected ton — no gate fee, no transport, no closure liability accrual, no forward regulatory tail (PFAS/methane). That avoided expense is effectively a free service delivered by the manufacturing partner.
4
Feedstock Commitment + Site Access
At CSA execution, the City commits the feedstock, deeds the ACM site parcel to Carbotura, and grants property-tax abatement on the facility for the 30-year CSA term (Maricopa County Recorder, ARS §33). Together these components substitute for the Beneficiation Fee outflow. Converts an underutilized parcel + a future tax line into productive value.
5
Symmetric Take-or-Pay
Asymmetric Take-or-Pay: the Beneficiation Fee obligation applies to the contracted MAFV even if delivered volume falls short. Predictable revenue stream through the 30-year term.
6
Optional Exogenesis™ add-on
If the City engages the 27th Avenue Landfill for Exogenesis™ legacy remediation, a separate Legacy Remediation Royalty of $50/ton (on legacy mass, +1%/yr) stacks on top — available on the CSA.
Municipal accounting perspective
How this hits Phoenix's balance sheet and income.
The City of Phoenix becomes a manufacturing feedstock supplier under a 30-year supply agreement. The financial architecture is designed so the effect on both the income statement and balance sheet is unambiguously positive — and under GASB municipal accounting, both effects are recognized annually. It also functions as a structural alternative to the embedded solid-waste rate-escalation path currently before Council.
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Income — new recurring revenue line
Circular Royalty™ receipts (~$17.5M/yr at Year 2 growing to ~$43.1M/yr by Year 30). Recognized as recurring non-tax revenue.
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Income — disposal cost avoided
Every ton redirected to the ACM facility eliminates the Fully-Loaded Cost of Disposal (~$105/ton estimated) — gate fee, transport, and the escalating tail. Reduction lands in the same fiscal year the tonnage is redirected.
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Balance sheet — landfill liability transfer
Post-closure landfill care obligations recorded under GASB 18 / GASB 49 — including the 27th Avenue Landfill (closed 2004) — can transfer to Carbotura via the Exogenesis™ Legacy Remediation path. That's a liability moved off the City's books — permanent balance-sheet remediation, independent of the royalty cashflow.
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Balance sheet — no new debt
Carbotura funds 100% of CapEx (~$247.5M Phase Initial). No G.O. bond issuance, no revenue bond, no pledge of the City's full-faith-and-credit backing. The manufacturing facility is Carbotura's asset; the royalty is the City's income.
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Balance sheet — environmental risk carry
Forward regulatory exposure (PFAS destination rules, methane compliance, closure re-permitting) sits with Carbotura under the CSA. The City's environmental impairment risk profile is materially reduced for the redirected material stream.
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Fund balance — enterprise fund relief
The CSA is a structural alternative to the multi-year solid-waste rate adjustment currently before Council (April 2026 direction). Rate stability and reduced dependency on periodic rate escalation become a durable political and fiscal asset.
CSA Structure
Two paths. One elected at CSA execution.
The election is irrevocable at CSA signing. Both options carry the same credit floor (BBB–/Baa3) and the same Exogenesis™ add-on availability. Carbotura's recommendation for Phoenix: — explained in the row below.
Sizing
Three configurations. Selected at the Deployment Study.
Council is not choosing a configuration today. The Deployment Study confirms feedstock availability, disposal-cost baseline, and site suitability — then Phoenix elects. City-owned streams alone deliver 1,400 TPD — 3.5× the Phase Initial requirement — so Phase Initial needs no third-party agreements.
400
TPD
City of Phoenix streams only. No partnership needed. City-owned residential/commercial MSW alone covers this 3.5× over.
1,000
TPD
Phase Medium. Adds commercial/industrial streams and optional Maricopa County unincorporated territory flows — separately structured, additive.
2,000
TPD
Full metro pathway. Adds MAG member-city partnerships (Maricopa Association of Governments — the ARS §49-761 regional planning agency). None is a precondition.
The Maricopa County pathway
Phoenix anchors. The county grows into it. The City of Phoenix is the sole counterparty on the anchor CSA — no other jurisdiction's approval is needed to start. As the facility scales, Maricopa County unincorporated territory (via Maricopa County Environmental Services Division) and MAG member cities (Mesa, Chandler, Glendale, Scottsdale, Tempe, and 20+ others) can join through separately structured CSA addenda — each additive, none a precondition.
Regional Coordination MOU — the county's seat at the table from day one. Alongside the anchor CSA, Carbotura offers Maricopa County a non-tonnage Regional Coordination MOU: a permitting and planning alignment instrument with no supply commitment, no Take-or-Pay, and no financial obligation. It formalizes the County ESD's role in the Regulatory Predicate Transition, aligns unincorporated-territory permitting from the outset, and establishes the framework through which county flows join at Phase Medium. The county gets a formal seat without committing tonnage it does not control — Arizona's absence of flow-control authority means no jurisdiction can commit flows it does not physically collect.
Maricopa County added 57,471 residents in 2023–24 — the third-largest numeric growth of any US county — with no corresponding diversion-capacity investment. Every new resident adds material volume with nowhere better to go. The ACM facility gives the region the destination its growth already demands — and gives Phoenix the royalty stream from anchoring it first.
Regulatory foundation
The Regulatory Predicate Transition.
Also called the dewaste pathway. This is the joint regulatory work that lets a manufacturing operation stand up alongside — not inside — legacy waste-domain statutes.
RPT — both parties commit to the dewaste pathway
Advanced Circular Manufacturing does not fit within the waste domain and does not operate under waste-domain statutes. 100% elemental recycling requires classification onto the manufacturing predicate.
Carbotura brings: the process-classification evidence, the RCRA §1004(27) / 40 CFR §261.2(e) federal classification basis, and prior regulatory-engagement experience.
The City of Phoenix brings: standing to engage ADEQ, political mandate for the transition, and coordination with Maricopa County Environmental Services Division where unincorporated territory is involved.
Endpoint: manufacturing NAICS classification recognized across all permitting, licensing, and regulatory contexts. Interim bridging authorities may apply during the transition.
From here to first tonne
Approximately 24 months, sequenced in five stages.
Each stage has a natural exit ramp. The Council decision today authorizes only the first stage. Actual Commercial Operating Date depends on Phoenix's manufacturing queue position — the sequencing of active Carbotura client deployments at the time of CSA execution.
1
Weeks 4–6
Deployment Study
Feedstock baseline · Fully-Loaded Cost of Disposal · site + regulatory pathway · verifications against City-supplied documentation. $0 to Phoenix.
2
Month 2–5
LOI / MOU
Council authorizes the Letter of Intent. Configuration and the CSA/B election locked at signing.
3
Month 5–8
CSA execution
Circular Supply Agreement signed. ADEQ manufacturing classification confirmed via the RPT.
4
Month 8–24
Build phase
Carbotura funds and builds the ACM facility. City engagement is minimal — permitting only. Queue-position dependent.
5
Month ~24
COD · first tonne
Commercial Operating Date. First Beneficiation Fee payment. Royalty stream begins M+13.
The ask · Today
Authorize a Deployment Study.
That is the full extent of what Council is asked to approve today. Everything downstream — configuration, election, LOI, CSA — is a subsequent Council decision informed by the Deployment Study findings. Authorizing now puts verified findings in front of Council before the April 2026 rate direction.
Cost to Phoenix
$0
Carbotura bears the Deployment Study cost
Duration
4–6 wk
Then Council reviews findings
Next Council decision
LOI
Approximately Month 4