The words we use,
and what they mean.

#Advanced Circular Manufacturing (ACM)

The industrial category Carbotura works in. An ACM plant takes unsorted manufacturing feedstock and converts it into manufactured materials. Its inputs are feedstock and its outputs are products, the way any manufacturer works.See: ACM Platform

#Manufacturing feedstock

The material a community or company supplies to an ACM plant. It arrives unsorted, and no one has to separate it first. It transfers to Carbotura under a Circular Supply Agreement: ownership of the material, and responsibility for it, pass to Carbotura at collection or delivery.See: The same atoms, three names

#Total Material Conversion (TMC)

Converting about 100% of what comes in into manufactured outputs. About 90% leaves the plant as products sold to industry. About 10% is used inside the plant to power itself.

#Elemental dissociation

What happens to feedstock inside the Recyclotron™. Material is resolved into its elemental constituents, so no input molecule survives, and the outputs are made new from those elements. This is what separates ACM from pyrolysis and chemical recycling, where fragments of the original molecules carry through.See: Technology

#Near-zero residual, near-zero emissions

The environmental standard every ACM plant is held to. Nearly all of the input becomes product. There is no combustion and no exhaust stack, and process water runs in a closed loop with no outfall.

#Prime Four Rules

The four rules every ACM deployment must satisfy: No New Technology (every component is established, commercial-grade equipment), No Emissions (near-zero atmospheric emissions, no combustion), No Discharge (closed-loop water) and No Waste (near-zero residual).See: EPC Primer

#Vortex™

Carbotura’s mark: the aperture-style symbol that appears in the header and footer of every Carbotura page and document. It is a trademark of Carbotura, Inc.

#Registers

The three visual identities Carbotura documents are drawn in, chosen by who is reading rather than by file type: Bedrock for capital and compliance readers, Catalyst for web and technology, Commons for community content.

#Circular Supply Agreement (CSA)

The agreement between a Feedstock Provider and Carbotura, in a single structure. The Feedstock Provider delivers a contracted feedstock stream and pays the Beneficiation Fee (TMC Fee). Carbotura takes transfer of the material, converts it, and pays the Circular Royalty™. The fee and the royalty are separate payments in opposite directions and are never netted.See: For Communities

#Feedstock Provider

The community, government entity or company that supplies manufacturing feedstock under a CSA. The agreement itself calls it the Feedstock Supplier.

#Beneficiation Fee (TMC Fee)

TMC stands for Total Material Conversion. This is the per-ton fee the Feedstock Provider pays for Total Material Conversion: $100–$150 per ton at the published range, escalating 2.5% a year. It is invoiced monthly in arrears on the tonnage received. It pays for conversion into manufactured materials, not for disposal.

#Circular Royalty™

The per-ton royalty Carbotura pays the Feedstock Provider on delivered tonnage. In Year 1 it is 120% of that year's Beneficiation Fee, or $120–$180 per ton at the published range, and the percentage rises one point every year. Payments begin 13 months after Carbotura receives the first Beneficiation Fee payment and continue monthly for the life of the agreement. It is the only raw-material cost Carbotura carries.

#Royalty Multiplier

The percentage applied to each year's Beneficiation Fee to set that year's Circular Royalty™: 120% in Year 1, rising one percentage point a year (129% in Year 10, 149% in Year 30), with no cap.

#Legacy Remediation Royalty

An optional CSA add-on for sites with a qualifying legacy landfill, delivered through the Exogenesis™ path. It pays $50 per ton of legacy mass extracted and processed, rising 1% a year from Year 2, alongside the Circular Royalty™. Payments begin 13 months after the first legacy material is extracted.

#Minimum Annual Feedstock Volume (MAFV)

The minimum tonnage the Feedstock Provider commits to deliver in each contract year. It is the volume the take-or-pay obligation is measured against.

#Take-or-pay

The Feedstock Provider's obligation on the Minimum Annual Feedstock Volume, which applies regardless of the volume actually delivered.

#Circular Materials Offtake Agreement (CMOA)

The separate agreement under which industrial buyers purchase Circular Materials from Carbotura. It is a different contract with different counterparties from the CSA.

#Separate transactions

The Beneficiation Fee and the Circular Royalty™ are two independent payments between the same two parties, in opposite directions. The Feedstock Provider pays the fee and receives the royalty. They are never netted against each other, and the royalty is never presented as Carbotura revenue: it is Carbotura’s raw-material cost, and the only cost it bears for the feedstock.See: The Full Return

#Circular Environmental Attributes Agreement (CEAA)

The contract under which the environmental attributes of a ton, such as landfill diversion and avoided emissions, are sold to attribute buyers. It has its own counterparties, separate from the Feedstock Provider and from the materials buyers.See: The Full Return

#Single mass-basis rule

One physical ton is counted once in each of three dimensions: as feedstock under the CSA, as materials sold under the CMOA, and as attributes under the CEAA. The three are never added together as if they were three separate tons.

#Liability transfer

Under the CSA, ownership of the feedstock and responsibility for it pass to Carbotura at collection or delivery. Where a public Feedstock Provider carries a post-closure care liability, the transfer of responsibility at delivery is what its GASB 18 analysis turns on.See: The Full Return

#Legacy site

A closed or capped landfill, ash pond or similar deposit whose buried material may be mined and processed through the Exogenesis™ path. The mass extracted is called legacy mass, and it earns the Legacy Remediation Royalty.

#Pregenesis™

Protocol 1: feedstock preparation. Shredding to a uniform size, magnetic separation of ferrous metal, and Liquifact™ liquid-fraction extraction. Preparation, not sorting.See: Technology

#Liquifact™

The liquid-fraction extraction module within Pregenesis™.

#Regenesis™

Protocol 2: primary elemental dissociation inside the Recyclotron™, resolving feedstock into two intermediate streams, OmniCrude™ Vapor and OmniCrude™ Solids. No combustion takes place.

#Recyclotron™

The multiphase microwave reactor module in which the Regenesis™ protocol runs. It is a module, not a fifth protocol. The Recyclotron™ performs primary elemental dissociation, resolving feedstock into OmniCrude™ Vapor and Solids streams; vapors undergo secondary reforming and shift conversion before separation into finished materials.

#OmniCrude™

The umbrella name for the two intermediate streams that leave Regenesis™: OmniCrude™ Vapor and OmniCrude™ Solids. Both go on to Regenesis MAX™. OmniCrude™ is internal to the plant and is never sold.

#Carbon Recovery Syngas Reforming Unit (CRSRU)

The secondary reforming stage for the OmniCrude™ Vapor stream, downstream of the Recyclotron™. It is a stage within the process, not a protocol.

#Water Gas Shift

The shift-conversion stage for the vapor stream, after the CRSRU and before Regenesis MAX™.

#Regenesis MAX™

Protocol 3: separating and refining both OmniCrude™ streams into Circular Materials. The vapor stream arrives after the CRSRU and Water Gas Shift; the solids stream arrives directly.

#Exogenesis™

Protocol 4: urban and landfill mining. It extracts and conditions legacy buried deposits, such as closed landfills, coal-ash ponds, contaminated sites and mining tailings, so they can run through Protocols 1 to 3.

#Island Mode

How an ACM plant powers itself. Hydrogen produced in the process feeds fuel cells on site, so the plant runs independently of the grid, without combustion and without a stack.

#Atmospheric Processing System (APS)

Plant-wide negative-pressure capture. Process gases are collected and returned into the process instead of being released, which is why an ACM plant has no exhaust stack.

#Circular Materials

The certified manufactured outputs Carbotura sells: synthetic graphite, graphene compounds, recovered metals and minerals, rare earth elements, industrial gases and ultrapure water. There are 116 in all, each graded on the RevCon™ Valorization Ladder.See: Materials

#RevCon™ Valorization Ladder

The five grades of Revenue Readiness Condition used to grade Circular Materials: RC1 Circular Raw Material, RC2 Functional Conversion, RC3 Optimized Circular Materials (the baseline), RC4 Specialized Circular Material and RC5 Premium Circular Product.

#Net-positive ultrapure water

An ACM plant produces more water than it uses. The surplus is refined to laboratory-grade (ASTM D1193 Type I) ultrapure water and sold or donated.See: Water-starved communities

#Circular Materials Catalog (CMC)

Carbotura's public catalog of Circular Materials, at cmc.carbotura.com.See: Open the catalog ↗

#Design for Manufacturability (DFM)

Carbotura's delivery model. ACM modules are manufactured products, made in a factory to one production specification and replicated for capacity. It is the opposite of an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) project, which is designed for one site and built in the field, and it is designed to be verified in certified layers, from component to full line, through factory and site integration testing.See: Why Carbotura is not a project-risk investment · EPC Primer

#ACM Modular Production Unit (ACM module)

The standard 100 tons-per-day production unit. A 400 tons-per-day deployment is four identical modules.

#Capacity replication

Adding capacity by deploying more identical, already-validated modules, instead of designing a larger plant.

#Named throughput

A building's design throughput, up to 2,000 tons per day per building and 30,000 tons per day per campus.

#N+1 line capacity

Redundant line capacity installed in every building. If a line is out of service, the remaining lines carry the building's named throughput.

#Multiphysics simulation

The engineering model that sets each module's production specification before anything is manufactured. Every ACM module is manufactured to that specification, and deployed modules confirm it within the 2.5% manufacturing tolerance.

#Manufacturing tolerance

The 2.5% tolerance on each module's production specification, confirmed by performance data from deployed modules. A module must perform within it to pass acceptance testing.

#FAT, SAT and SIT

The three acceptance tests every module passes. Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT) checks the assembled module before it ships. Site Acceptance Testing (SAT) confirms it arrived and was installed to specification. Site Integration Testing (SIT) proves it works with the site's own systems and is designed to certify commercial operation (COD).

#Module Delivery Authorization (MDA)

The checkpoint that releases a module for shipment to site.

#Deployment timeline

A standard deployment runs 12 to 24 months from permit issuance to commercial operation.

#Digital Triplet

The three linked records behind every plant (engineering, module manufacturing and facility operations) sharing one data lake, so design, build and operation inform each other.See: Engineering Doctrine

#Continuous Adaptive Feedback Integration (CAFI)

How operating data flows back into the design. Each event that deviates from specification is ingested, enriched with context from the other plants, and returned to the engineering specification, the manufacturing record and the operating protocol, so a fix found at one site improves every module.

#Standard Deployment

The reference plant size: 400 tons per day, built as four 100 TPD ACM modules. The first module carries the shared building and infrastructure; the next three share it. Commercial operation follows permit issuance by 12 to 24 months.See: ACM Facility Explorer

#Tons per day (TPD)

How plant capacity is stated: tons of feedstock converted per day. Capacity grows by adding identical modules, not by designing a larger plant. The envelope is up to 2,000 TPD per building and up to 30,000 TPD per campus.

#Deployment Planning Period

The stage after a Circular Supply Agreement is signed and before module manufacture, when site work, material characterization and the regulatory pathway are completed.

#LOI, MOU and Term Sheet

The non-binding steps before a Circular Supply Agreement. A Letter of Intent or Memorandum of Understanding sets intent, scope and confidentiality; a Term Sheet then fixes the Minimum Annual Feedstock Volume and per-ton economics for the stream. Neither binds either party.See: For feedstock providers

#Operating states

Five conditions each part of a plant can be in: GREEN, BLUE, AMBER, RED and BLACK. A state is always local: it is resolved separately at each level of the plant, never declared for the whole plant at once.

#Physical taxonomy

How an ACM plant is divided: Zone, Line, Frame, Module, Equipment. Operating states, redundancy and maintenance are described at the level where they apply.

#Original equipment manufacturer (OEM)

Carbotura, and only Carbotura. As the OEM it writes the production specification for every ACM module and governs how modules are manufactured.

#Authorized Systems Integrator (ASI)

Tier 1. Each ASI is accountable for its modules: it runs and certifies their acceptance testing, delivers and integrates them, and gives a module warranty built on the component warranties beneath it. The Master Authorized Systems Integrator (MASI), the one ASI designated per deployment, is the single accountable party for the deployment: it gives the full-line warranty and performance guarantees and owns the spares.

#Master Authorized Systems Integrator (MASI)

The one Authorized Systems Integrator designated for a deployment to integrate the full line. It is designed to complete final integration, test and burn-in at Factory Acceptance Testing, conduct Site Acceptance and Site Integration Testing, and give Carbotura the full-line system warranty and performance guarantees, built from the component and module warranties beneath it.

#Authorized Manufacturing Partner (AMP)

Tier 2. Manufactures specific engineered components to Carbotura's production specification, with a component warranty for its own scope passed through the ASI.See: Work with Carbotura

#Authorized Material Supplier (AMS)

Tier 3. Supplies certified process materials and consumables, with a certificate of conformance for every delivery.

#Authorized Technology Partner (ATP)

Tier 4. Contributes technology, controls platforms or instrumentation that integrate into the ACM module.

#Authorized Validation Partner (AVP)

Tier 5. The independent referee: tests and certifies performance against the specification, and must be present at factory and site acceptance testing.

#Municipal solid waste (MSW)

The conventional category name for the household and commercial discards a city collects. Carbotura describes the same material as manufacturing feedstock, because an ACM plant takes it as an input and sells what it makes from it.See: The same atoms, three names

#Landfill

An engineered site where discards are buried in lined cells and covered daily. It is the destination most communities pay to use, and it carries a long tail of monitoring and closure obligations after it stops accepting material.

#Tipping fee

The conventional per-ton charge a disposal facility makes to accept a load. It is a price for taking material away. It is not what Carbotura charges: the Beneficiation Fee is a conversion fee under a Circular Supply Agreement, and it is paired with a royalty that flows the other way.See: The Full Return

#Leachate

The liquid that forms as water moves through buried material and dissolves what it meets: metals, salts, organics, and persistent chemicals such as PFAS. It is collected and treated for as long as the site exists, and leachate reaching groundwater is the main long-term liability of a landfill.

#Landfill gas

The gas produced as buried organic material decomposes without oxygen, roughly half methane and half carbon dioxide. Methane traps far more heat per ton than carbon dioxide, so landfills are a significant source of the climate damage the conventional system causes.

#Post-closure care

The monitoring and maintenance a landfill owner must provide after closure, which in the United States is set at a minimum of 30 years under federal landfill rules and can be extended. For a public owner it is a liability carried on the balance sheet.

#GASB 18

Governmental Accounting Standards Board Statement No. 18, the accounting standard governing how a public landfill owner recognizes closure and post-closure care costs. It is why an authority’s landfill is a recorded liability and not just a facility.

#Landfill diversion

Keeping material out of a landfill by any route. Diversion is a measure of where material does not go; it does not say what becomes of it. ACM diversion ends in manufactured products.

#Closed landfill and legacy deposit

A landfill that no longer accepts material but still has to be monitored, capped and managed. Closed sites hold large stocks of buried material, which is the opportunity the Exogenesis™ path addresses.

#RCRA

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, the federal law that governs how solid and hazardous material is managed in the United States. Whether a material or a facility is classed as solid waste or as manufacturing under it shapes the permits that apply. Carbotura works to have its operations confirmed as manufacturing, and nothing in its agreements depends on that confirmation.See: Regulatory posture

#NAICS

The North American Industry Classification System, the government’s way of sorting businesses by what they do. Manufacturing is sectors 31 to 33; waste management and remediation services sit in a different sector. Carbotura operates under manufacturing classification (NAICS 31–33).See: Regulatory posture

#NPDES

The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, the Clean Water Act permit required to discharge process water to a waterway. An ACM plant has no process-water discharge, so there is no outfall to permit.

#Title V air permit

The Clean Air Act operating permit required of major sources of air pollution. It sets the emission limits and monitoring a combustion-based facility must meet. ACM has no combustion stage and no stack.

#CERCLA

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, commonly called Superfund. It creates liability for contaminated sites, which is part of why legacy sites are costly to own.

#Extended producer responsibility (EPR)

A policy approach that makes producers financially or operationally responsible for their products at end of life. A growing number of US states have adopted it for packaging, which increases interest in routes that return material to manufacturing.

#PFAS

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, often called forever chemicals. They resist breakdown in landfills and in water treatment, and they concentrate in leachate. In ACM they are fully broken down in downstream processing at 1,800 to 3,000 °C.

#Incineration

Burning material at high temperature to reduce its volume. It produces ash that still has to be landfilled and a flue gas that has to be cleaned. ACM involves no combustion.

#Waste-to-energy (WtE)

Incineration that recovers heat as steam or electricity. Its product is power, and its residue is ash. Carbotura is not waste-to-energy: it makes materials, it sells no power, electricity or hydrogen, and it has no stack.See: How ACM compares

#Pyrolysis

Heating organic material with little or no oxygen so it breaks into oil, gas and char. The fragments that result are still molecules of the original kind, which is why pyrolysis products usually need further processing and often end as fuel.See: How ACM compares

#Gasification

Heating material with a controlled amount of oxygen or steam to produce a fuel gas. It is a thermal process built around producing energy or a fuel feedstock, with ash or char left over.

#Chemical recycling

A group of processes, including pyrolysis and depolymerization, that break plastics back toward simpler chemicals. They work on narrow, pre-sorted streams. ACM is different in kind: it dissociates feedstock to its elements and is not sorted first.See: How ACM compares

#Mechanical recycling

Sorting, cleaning, shredding and re-melting a material to make a similar one. It needs a clean, sorted stream, and each cycle usually lowers the quality of what comes out.

#Downcycling

Recycling that yields a lower-value product than the one it started from, such as a bottle becoming a fiber or a filler. It delays disposal without ending it.

#Materials recovery facility (MRF)

A plant that sorts mixed recyclables into separate commodity streams. Its output quality depends on how clean the incoming stream is, which is why contamination is its central problem.

#Circular economy

An economic model in which materials stay in use instead of being extracted, used once and discarded. Advanced Circular Manufacturing is one way to close the loop: return matter to elemental raw materials that manufacturers can use again.See: The Master Doctrine

#Environmental attributes

The measurable, verifiable benefits of an activity that can be separately sold or claimed, such as avoided landfill methane or diverted tons. They are the third of the three revenue streams of a ton, after the Beneficiation Fee and Circular Materials sales.See: The Full Return

#Feedstock

Any material that goes into a manufacturing process to be turned into something else. In a conventional plant it is bought. In ACM it transfers to Carbotura under a Circular Supply Agreement: Carbotura pays the Circular Royalty™ on it, and the Feedstock Provider pays the Beneficiation Fee.

#Virgin-equivalent

A manufactured material that performs and is specified like one made from newly extracted raw material. Carbotura’s Circular Materials are virgin-equivalent because they are synthesized from elemental constituents, not recovered as altered fragments.See: Circular Materials