Over its 25-plus year development history, TCCT has successfully destroyed over 1,016 tonnes of asbestos waste.

TCCT was developed and patented by US-based ARI Technologies Inc. (ARI U.S.).

From 1990 until 1994, TCCT evolved through a series of laboratory and engineering scale test phases and scale-ups. These test phases constituted the ‘proof of principle’ for TCCT and prepared the technology for scale-up.

From 1994 to 2007, ARI U.S. conducted several progressively complex and/or larger scale waste treatment projects to improve the performance and efficiency of the technology.

Projects included destruction of asbestos, Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCB) contaminated materials, toxic metals including lead-based paint, and surrogate radioactive materials. A summary of these waste treatment projects is as follows:

• Validate technology for asbestos destruction pursuant to 40 CFR 61.155 for US Department of Energy, Bechtel Hanford, 1996 – 1997;
• Destroy PCBs and asbestos per TSCA regulations for the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Engineering Service Centre, 1999;
• Design, build and test a large-scale modular waste treatment system for destruction of asbestos and PCBs for US Department of Defence including an EPA-designed Validation Test Program leading to a National Operating Permit for destruction of PCBs under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), 1999 – 2002;
• Deploy technology for asbestos destruction and evaluate suitability for immobilisation of toxic metals and surrogate radionuclides for the US Department of Energy, 2000 – 2002;
• Remove, recover and recycle lead from salvaged building materials contaminated with lead- based paint for the US Army Corps of Engineers Construction Research Engineering Laboratory, 2003;
• Design, build and demonstrate a full-scale transportable system for concentrating, recovering and recycling lead from deconstruction materials contaminated with lead-based paint for the US Army Corps of Engineers Construction Research Engineering Laboratory, 2005 – 2007;
• Destroy a wide variety of asbestos waste products over an extended operational period to carefully document emission performance, confirm complete destruction of asbestos and to demonstrate extended process performance and reliability for a Japanese consortium of companies, 2007. For more information on this operation, refer Tacoma, Washington USA (Japanese Consortium) Demonstration Facility.

TCCT has been granted a National Operating Permit by the US Environmental Protection Agency for the thermal destruction of asbestos and PCBs and is recognised as a viable alternative to placement of waste asbestos in landfill within several documents including:

• Reference Document on Best Available Techniques for the Waste Treatment Industries, European Commission (refer EC 2006, section 4.3.3.2), 2006
• Technology Assessment – Asbestos Destruction using ARIs Thermochemical Conversion Technology, British Nuclear Fuels Ltd, 2004
• ARI Technologies Asbestos Destruction, National Energy Technology Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, 2002

UK-based ARI Global Technologies Ltd (ARIGT U.K.), a subsidiary of waste management conglomerate Windsor Integrated Services Group, acquired the global rights to the technology in 2014 from ARI U.S.

ARIGT U.K. are currently investigating establishment of TCCT facilities in other jurisdictions including the UK and the Netherlands.

In 2016 the UK’s LLW Repository Ltd. on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority shortlisted TCCT as a preferred technology for treatment of low level radioactive waste in its LAW Asbestos and Asbestos Containing Waste Gate B (Preferred Options) Study. The following year, ARIGT U.K. received the European Asbestos Forum’s prestigious International Recognition Award for their “commitment towards the more sustainable management of asbestos waste through its Thermal Chemical Conversion Technology”.

In 2017, ARIGT U.K. secured EnviroMaster as the exclusive territory licensee for the patented technology in the Australasian region.

Since this time, EnviroMaster has been working tirelessly to develop the world’s first, commercial scale TCCT facility, successfully securing over AUD$14 million in funding, through two separate grants, from the Australian Government. This funding is to establish the necessary planning to support the development, operation and future ownership of a trial facility to use TCCT for asbestos waste remediation as an alternative to landfill.