Masada Oxynol
Masada Oxynol LLC, formerly Pencor Masada Oxynol, is an affiliate of Masada Resource Group that owns all rights to develop the company's proprietary waste disposal technology in the United States. The company was founded in the 1990s, and was headed by Daryl Harms. Its offices were located at 2170 Highland Avenue.
Masada developed and patented the "CES OxyNol" process to convert municipal solid waste and sewage sludge to fuel ethanol and other commercial by-products.
In 1994 Masada Oxynol announced plans to build waste-to-ethanol conversion facility in Middletown, New York. The project gained necessary approvals in 2003, but failed to ever begin construction. In 1998 Donald Watkins bought the Pencor Orange Corporation, which in turn owned 25% of Pencor Masada Oxynol, for $600,000.
After Harms died in 2005 Masada, now headed by Watkins under his "Masada Resource Group" banner, began claiming that Middletown's newly-elected Mayor and City Council had attempted to block the company's progress and filed an arbitration claim against the city in 2007. The arbitrator ruled in favor of Middletown in May 2011, effectively nullifying all of Masada Oxynol's permit approvals.
References
- Welles, Ed (May 1, 2003) "The Door-To-Door Billionaire Daryl Harms knows how to turn dull businesses into big profits. But can he really do it with your garbage?" Fortune
- Cahn, Dianna. (September 15, 2004) "Fate of Masada project up in the air." (Hudson Valley) Times Herald-Record
- Cahn, Dianna. (April 29, 2008) "Ethanol plant officials ready to get started." Times Herald-Record.
- Yakin, Heather (May 14, 2011) "Middletown wins Masada case." Times Herald-Record