Waste isn’t the end of the line. It’s the start of a new one.
Cirque Renewables. Economically responsible. Environmentally friendly. Cirque Renewables converts tires, wood waste, biosolids, and other solid waste streams into recovered materials, clean energy, and agricultural solutions — closing solid waste loops and increasing revenue.
to
Value
Modular. Scalable. Tailor Made.
Every year, the U.S. generates hundreds of millions of tons of solid waste that industry has historically treated as a disposal problem: tires and wood waste piling up in landfills, PFAS contaminated sewage sludge/biosolids landfilled or spread on farmland. Each of these streams carries real cost — environmental liability, lost land value, and a growing list of health and regulatory risks, from tire-derived 6PPD-quinone in waterways to PFAS “forever chemicals” moving from treated fields into crops, livestock, and drinking water.
Cirque Renewables treats that waste as valued feedstock instead. Our core technology is thermal pyrolysis — heating waste material in a low-oxygen environment until it breaks down into its most valuable component parts, without burning it. Run whole tires through our Tire EcoCycle© process and you recover Carbon Black, crude oil, and steel. Run biosolids and wood residuals through the same category of process and you get biochar — a stable, carbon-rich material that can lock carbon in the ground for decades.
The result is a modular suite of technologies that turns disposal cost into recovered value across five connected capability areas: waste tires, solid waste and biosolids, energy, agriculture, and orphan oil and gas well remediation. Each is documented in more detail on its own page. The Cirque Renewables EcoCycle represents a fully measurable and economically sustainable environmental solution.
Explore what we turn waste into.
Waste Tires
Convert 4000 whole tires (that’s right, no shredding required) per day into recovered Carbon Black, WTI Crude Oil, and steel. Zero waste.
Solid Waste
Biosolids and wood residuals converted to biochar, cutting disposal cost and PFAS exposure.
Energy
Waste heat from cooking solid waste is converted into clean electricity.
Agriculture
Carbon rich biochar has multiple applications in soil and animal feed.
Orphan Oil & Gas Wells
Biochar enhanced cement improves well plug strength, limits waste, enhances well health and sequesters CO2.
Results
Modular systems to fit your business or municipality. Make a measurable financial and environmental impact.
Tire EcoCycle©
Whole-tire batch pyrolysis that converts waste tires into recovered carbon black, crude oil, and steel — no shredding, no landfill, no waste.
The Problem
- 270 million waste tires are generated in the U.S. every year.
- 67.5 million end up in landfills annually — up 19% year over year.
- Crumb rubber on playgrounds and turf sheds 6PPD-quinone, a toxic tire chemical under growing health scrutiny.
- Existing shredding-based solutions (largely current inefficient technology) carry higher capex and opex.
The Solution
- Accepts whole tires — no pre-shredding required.
- Continuous batch processing delivers consistent recovered carbon black and WTI crude oil.
- Closed-loop technology that runs on its own recovered energy.
- Low noise, no smell, clean facility footprint.
Nothing goes to landfill. Everything has a buyer.
Every whole tire that enters the EcoCycle© process comes out as sellable, reusable commodities — plus the energy to run the site.
Recovered Carbon Black — CARBONext™
Petroleum-free additive for injection-molded plastics and black rubber products. Recovered daily from every batch.
WTI Crude Oil
Sold to regional oil production or used in asphalt rejuvenation and manufacturing.
Steel
Returned directly into the steel recycling supply chain.
Energy
Waste heat from the system is used to generate electricity to power the entire site, creating a green microgrid.
Built for economics, not just diversion.
Current inefficient pyrolysis solutions on the market today require pre-shredding tires before processing — an extra mechanical step that adds capex, opex, and points of failure. Cirque’s Tire EcoCycle© process skips it entirely, accepting whole tires directly into continuous batch processing. That single design choice lowers both the cost to build a site and the cost to run one, while still delivering consistent, sellable carbon black, oil, and steel output.
Community and economic impact, per site.
Recession-Proof
Advanced manufacturing model built to fuel rural and urban economic development regardless of broader market cycles.
35 Jobs
Trade-skilled, AI-proof careers created per EcoCycle© site.
1.3M Tires Diverted
Waste tires diverted from landfills annually, per site.
Note: Technology R&D fully funded by U.S. Air Force AFWERX SBIR. Federal impact ties into USDA Rural Development, DOE, and DOT priorities.
Solid Waste & Biosolids
Pyrolysis turns biosolids and wood residuals into biochar — cutting disposal cost, destroying PFAS, and creating a material with real value in agriculture, construction, and orphan oil and gas well remediation.
The Problem: A Growing Solid Waste Liability
- PFAS (“forever chemicals”) don’t break down — once land-applied as “fertilizer,” they persist in soil, move into groundwater, and accumulate.
- Wood waste from saw mills, construction sites, and storm debris is filling up our landfills and being hauled around regions for disposal.
- Crops, forage, and livestock take up PFAS from treated fields, creating a direct pathway into the food supply.
- Documented contamination of milk, produce, and pastureland has already forced farm closures and lost livelihoods.
- Maine became the first state to fully ban land application of sewage sludge and biosolids (2022) after widespread PFAS contamination. 16 states are now advancing similar restrictions.
The Solution: Pyrolysis, Not Land Application or Landfills
- Pyrolysis heats sewage sludge, biosolids, and wood waste residuals in a low-oxygen environment, thermally destroying PFAS compounds rather than spreading them on farmland.
- Pyrolysis reduces the wood and sewage sludge waste 5:1. Yes, we reduce your tonnage by 80% while cooking the waste using energy created by the actual waste.
- The process transforms that waste into biochar — a stable, carbon-rich material — instead of a land-applied contaminant risk.
- Disposal shifts from a recurring cost center to an energy- and material-recovery process.
- USDA is prioritizing biochar in federal research and conservation funding as a science-backed alternative to land application.
One output, four destinations.
Biochar produced from solid waste isn’t a disposal byproduct — it’s a feedstock for three other Cirque capability areas.
Agriculture
Improves water retention, nutrient retention, and soil structure. Multiple benefits as a feed additive for livestock and poultry.
Orphan Well Cement
Biochar-amended cement slurry (Reaper) improves compressive strength and reduces permeability in well plugging.
Carbon Sequestration
Locks carbon in the ground for the long term instead of releasing it to the atmosphere or leaching it into soil and water.
Concrete & Construction
Early research points to biochar as a viable low-carbon additive in cement composites beyond well plugging.
Energy
Every Cirque process is built to run on the energy it recovers from waste — turning disposal into a source of power instead of a drain on it.
Clean energy, recovered from cooking waste.
Pyrolysis doesn’t just produce carbon black, oil, and biochar — the thermal process itself produces waste heat to generate clean electricity.
CirqueRenewables EcoCycle pyrolysis systems are designed as closed loops: waste tires, biosolids, and wood residuals are heated in a low-oxygen environment, and a portion of the recovered energy from that process is fed back into running the system itself. That means a Tire EcoCycle© or biochar site isn’t simply consuming grid power to process waste — it’s largely self-sustaining, which keeps operating costs down and keeps the environmental footprint of each facility small: low noise, no smell, and no open combustion. As a bonus, the clean waste heat generates electricity through steam turbines on site. This electricity can power projects on site or be sent back into the grid. Each turbine generates one megawatt and are modular and scalable just like the pyrolysis technologies.
The recovered outputs — WTI crude oil, recovered carbon black, and biochar — also carry energy value beyond the facility gate: crude oil re-enters regional oil markets, and biochar’s carbon-locking properties make it a long-duration carbon sink rather than a one-time energy release.
Closed-Loop Facility
Recovered energy runs the process. Low noise. No smell. No open combustion.
Clean Electricity
Waste heat to power. Scale megawatts to match your solid waste inputs.
Recovered Fuel Products
WTI crude oil recovered from tire pyrolysis re-enters regional energy and asphalt markets.
Carbon Storage, Not Just Energy Release
Biochar locks carbon in a stable form rather than releasing it — a long-term energy and climate asset rather than a one-time burn.
Closed-Loop by Design
Facilities are engineered to run on their own recovered energy rather than pulling continuously from the grid.
Agriculture
Biochar gives farmers a soil amendment that improves water retention, nutrient retention, and soil structure. As a feed additive, there is growing support as a healthy alternative for livestock and poultry.
Biochar: the healthy choice for our food chain
Biochar produced from Cirque’s pyrolysis process is a stable, carbon-rich material that, when worked into soil, improves water retention, nutrient retention, and overall soil structure — while locking carbon in the ground for the long term. That makes it a direct, safer alternative to land-applying raw biosolids, which carry PFAS contamination risk into the same fields.
Adding biochar in measured amounts to feed can eliminate toxins and ammonia in a chicken’s digestive system, improve nutrient absorption in cattle, and create high quality fertilizer on the literal back end.
Feed and soil solutions, from the same platform.
Water Retention
Biochar’s porous structure holds moisture in soil longer, reducing irrigation demand and drought stress.
Nutrient Retention
Improved cation exchange capacity keeps nutrients available to crops instead of leaching away.
Livestock Feed
Using biochar as a feed additive improves gut health in livestock, decreases methane emissions, and creates biochar charged natural fertilizer.
Poultry
Adding a measured amount of biochar to your poultry feed eliminates ammonia and other toxins in your chickens. The charged biochar in the chicken litter creates natural rocket fuel fertilizer for plants.
Orphan Oil & Gas Wells
Reaper Technology pairs a biochar-amended cement slurry with fast batch mixing to cut per-well cost, waste, and emissions versus conventional cementing.
Biochar: a carbon solution in the cement.
Cirque blends biochar — a stable, carbon-rich material from biomass pyrolysis — into the Reaper’s cement slurry. Rather than releasing that carbon to the atmosphere, biochar locks it underground inside the plug, turning every completed well into a small, permanent carbon sink. Its porous structure also improves slurry rheology and density control, further reducing sack waste at the surface.
Per well, 8-plug basis.
| Cost Component | Reaper Method | Conventional Cementing |
|---|---|---|
| Sack Cost | $2,720.00 | $2,720.00 |
| Wasted Sack Cost (136 sacks) | — | $1,088.00 |
| Mix Time Cost | $661.11 | $5,950.00 |
| Clean-up (bbl) Cost | $40.80 | $204.00 |
| Total Cost Per Well | $3,421.91 | $9,962.00 |
Figures reflect an 8-plug well and an $8/sack, $5.83/min mix, $0.60/bbl clean-up cost basis; savings scale linearly. Sources: Legion P&A Tools LLC Reaper presentation; Cirque Renewables Well Plugging Cost Comparison; Colorado State University biochar-cement research.
Colorado State University findings.
Researchers at Colorado State University have studied biochar-amended cement composites for well-plugging applications, finding that biochar additions improve compressive strength and reduce permeability relative to neat Portland cement — while sequestering carbon within the wellbore. The findings support biochar-cement as a viable, lower-carbon alternative for orphan well abandonment.
Source: Colorado State University — Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering, biochar-cement well-plugging research.
Faster, leaner, less waste.
Zero-Waste Product
No wasted water or dry cement.
Lean Crew
Only 2 equipment operators; services up to 4 rigs per day.
Fast Turnaround
Rig-up to rig-down in under an hour; 400 lbs/min mix rate.
What the pilot cooks are showing.
Data from Cirque’s pilot processing runs and third-party research — biochar, recovered oil, carbon black, and concrete performance.
Biochar
Produced from biosolids and wood residuals via pyrolysis; improves water retention, nutrient retention, and soil structure while sequestering carbon.
Reach out to discuss 3rd party resultsWTI Crude Oil
Recovered daily from Tire EcoCycle© batch processing; sold to regional oil production or used in asphalt rejuvenation.
Reach out to discuss 3rd party resultsRecovered Carbon Black (CARBONext™)
A petroleum-free additive for injection-molded plastics and black rubber products, recovered from every tire batch.
Reach out to discuss 3rd party resultsBiochar-Amended Concrete
Colorado State University research found biochar additions improve compressive strength and reduce permeability versus neat Portland cement in well-plugging composites.
Reach out to discuss 3rd party resultsBacked by outside research.
Cirque Renewables has 3rd party data to back up our results. Tires, wood waste, sewage sludge, cement and concrete strength tests etc. Data matters.
Results matter.
Let’s talk about making a difference now.
Common questions.
A first draft of frequently asked questions, pulled from our existing materials. Flag anything to add, cut, or rewrite.
Pyrolysis heats waste material — whole tires, biosolids, wood residuals — in a low-oxygen environment so it breaks down thermally instead of burning. That process recovers valuable materials (carbon black, oil, steel, biochar) instead of releasing them as smoke or ash.
Pyrolysis thermally breaks down PFAS compounds rather than concentrating or relocating them. This is a core claim of our biosolids work — we’ll expand this answer with supporting data and citations.
Most tire pyrolysis technology on the market — largely current inefficient technology — requires pre-shredding tires before processing. Cirque’s process accepts whole tires directly, which lowers both capital and operating costs while still producing consistent recovered carbon black, oil, and steel.
Recovered carbon black (CARBONext™) is sold as a petroleum-free additive for plastics and rubber manufacturing. Recovered oil is sold to regional oil production or used in asphalt rejuvenation. Steel re-enters the steel recycling supply chain. Biochar is used in agriculture, well-plugging cement, and other soil and construction applications.
Each Tire EcoCycle site creates 30-35 trade-skilled jobs, and each wood waste/sewage sludge Waste to Energy EcoCycle site creates 5-10 trade-skilled jobs. These positions are part of a recession-resistant model supporting rural and urban economic development.
The Tire EcoCycle stealth site is currently operational, this modular technology is ready to be scaled. Cirque’s Waste to Energy Technologies partner is already commercialized around the US and Canada. The Reaper technology is currently being operated in US oil fields. Short answer, we are ready to deploy now.
About Cirque Renewables
A waste-to-value company turning tires, biosolids, and other solid waste streams into recovered materials, energy, and soil solutions.
Cirque Renewables Company Overview
Economically responsible. Environmentally friendly.
Cirque Renewables was founded in 2024 as a development firm focused on delivering solid waste to value sites in the United States and beyond. The mission is simple; integrate technologies to divert solid waste and deliver a compelling value proposition.
Cirque has partnered with commercialized technologies to develop sites and create valuable products; biochar, recovered Carbon Black, WTI crude oil, steel, and energy. Modular technologies allow our team to scale solutions to fit market needs.
Cirque was founded by John Michaels. John brings 30+ years of large-scale sales and service operations experience in various executive roles. Leading multi-site and multimarket sites as a servant leader, John developed a culture that produced market leading results year after year. While bottom line profits are the goal, developing a strong culture is the foundation of strong results.
Our agile team brings over 7 decades of process, culture, execution and sales experience to the market. The support and interest of the State of Kansas, Department of War, USDA, DOE and DOT confirm that we are over the target and poised to disrupt an industry begging for economically responsible solutions.
Who to talk to.
From the team.
Posts from Cirque Renewables on technology, policy, and market opportunity — written by the people building it.
Inside Whole-Tire Pyrolysis: Why Skipping the Shredder Matters
A look at how Tire EcoCycle© avoids the capex and opex overhead of shredding-based competitors.
The Investment Tax Credit, Explained for Waste-to-Value Projects
What the ITC means for financing a Cirque Renewables facility, and how to think about eligibility.
Where Recovered Carbon Black, Oil, and Biochar Find Buyers
Mapping the offtake opportunities for every material Cirque recovers from waste.
Draft status: these are placeholder topics based on what you mentioned — tech applications, ITC info, and offtake opportunities. Send drafts from each of you and we’ll style them into full posts.