History of InEnTec and the PEM System
InEnTec’s Plasma Enhanced Melter® (PEM®) System has its origins in many decades of work in the development of two different technologies - plasma technology and glass melter technology.  By integrating these two technologies, InEnTec has created a revolutionary concept that provides the ultimate capability in converting waste into useful products, maximizing the potential for recycling.  InEnTec’s technology builds on extensive U.S. Department of Energy-sponsored research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Battelle Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).  The combined research funds expended on these technologies was well over $300 million.

Plasmas are electrically conducting gases.  Because of their unique properties, they are often referred to as the fourth state of matter.  Plasmas exist over a wide range of temperatures but are generally hotter than 5,000°C.  Plasmas familiar to the average person include lightning bolts and electric-arc furnaces used in the steel industry.  The sun and the stars are also plasmas, producing their power at very high temperatures by thermonuclear fusion.  In fact, most of the universe consists of plasmas.

At MIT, plasma applications have been investigated extensively at the Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC), MIT's largest on-campus laboratory.  In 1991, the PSFC undertook a research program to explore the use of plasmas for treatment of radioactive waste at United States Department of Energy (US DOE) sites.  The high temperature of plasmas and their ability to process waste without the adverse environmental impacts encountered with incineration made plasma technology a very attractive option.  MIT, together with an industrial subcontractor, formed a collaborative effort with PNNL.  PNNL is considered one of the world leaders in waste treatment technology based on its work as the research and development laboratory at the US DOE Hanford Site in Richland, Washington.  The Hanford site is one of the major US DOE sites in America.

The MIT - PNNL effort constructed a research device at MIT for studies of plasma-arc waste treatment.  The system employed a single graphite electrode and was used for a variety of tests that confirmed the basic attractiveness of plasmas for treating mixtures of radioactive and hazardous waste.  In 1995, this research program was evaluated by the US DOE, which concluded that the graphite electrode DC arc-plasma system was the most promising approach for meeting its needs to treat mixtures of hazardous and radioactive waste.

Encouraged by the progress of the government-sponsored program, the principals of the program - Dr. Daniel R. Cohn of MIT, Jeffrey E. Surma of PNNL and Charles H. Titus, who had been with General Electric Company and was a consultant to MIT, began to devise ways to improve the plasma waste treatment process to make it applicable to all types of waste including medical waste, tires, hazardous wastes and municipal waste.  Dr. Cohn, Mr. Surma and Mr. Titus developed a concept for integrating the plasma technology with glass melter technology, which had been successfully developed for treatment of the most dangerous (high level) radioactive wastes. 

However, instead of a single graphite electrode, they developed a concept for combining a unique configuration of multiple plasma electrodes, which would provide radiant heating and other electrodes submerged in a molten glass bath, which would provide resistive heating to keep the bath molten.  The system provided optimized electrical heating with exceptional process control.  This powerful basic concept was further developed and became the earliest element of InEnTec’s proprietary PEM® System.

Since this new approach represented a major advance and could provide the ultimate in waste treatment, the inventors began to look for ways to commercialize the technology and teamed with Larry Dinkin, a highly successful entrepreneur and investor, whom Dr. Cohn had known for some time.  The group (Dr. Cohn, Messrs. Titus, Surma and Dinkin) founded Integrated Environmental Technologies, LLC in July 1995, granting it exclusive rights to the PEM® technology.  In 1996, InEnTec opened its Technology Center in Richland, Washington, where development efforts have led to the successful commercialization and deployment of PEM® systems around the world.

In 2008, the company changed its name to InEnTec LLC and moved its headquarters to Bend, Oregon.  In October 2008, InEnTec formed InEnTec Chemical LLC in a joint venture with Lakeside Energy LLC, and in February 2009, InEnTec formed S4 Energy Solutions LLC in a joint venture with Waste Management, Inc.  In July 2011, InEnTec LLC converted to a corporation, incorporating under the name InEnTec Inc.