Changing World Technologies (CWT), a privately held synthetic fuel company, was founded in August 1997 by Brian S. Appel, who also served as chief executive officer of CWT and its subsidiaries. Through Mr. Appel's technology company, CWT was granted a license to operate. CWT was started primarily to develop and commercialize the thermal depolymerization technology, now referred to by the company as "thermal conversion process" or TCP. The process produces renewable diesel fuel oil (RDO) from agricultural wastes including fats, oils, and greases (FOG); dissolved air flotations (DAF); waste greases; offal; animal carcasses; and other organic-rich wastes. In developing the business, CWT assisted in creating a portfolio of intellectual property and trade secrets to cover the technology and its various applications. The company has a license in the U.S. and around the globe, covering the use of their technology for applications ranging from agricultural waste (offal) to mixed plastics. In addition to the commercial-scale plant in Carthage, Missouri, CWT has a pilot facility in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where research, development, and deployment (RD&D) work is performed to refine the production processes and to develop capabilities to produce RDO from other various waste materials. In 1998, CWT started a subsidiary, Thermo-Depolymerization Process, LLC (TDP), which developed a demonstration and test plant for the thermal depolymerization technology. The plant opened in 1999 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 2008, West Hempstead, New York-based CWT received the Most Innovative Patent Award in the Environment & Energy category from the Long Island Technology Hall of Fame. Appel accepted the award at the 2008 awards ceremony on March 6. On March 4, 2009, after a failed IPO attempt the previous month, Changing World Technologies and its three subsidiaries filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The company effectively shut down its Carthage plant after it bought ConAgra's share of the facility. The company has since reorganized and has emerged from Chapter 11 in May 2010. CWT maintained the key members of the management team who developed the intellectual property, and designed and built the physical plants. In 2011, the EPA designated CWT’s RDO, currently produced in the Missouri facility, as both a biomass-based diesel and advanced biofuel under the agency's Renewable Fuel Standards Program (RFS). This designation qualifies CWT’s RDO for assigned renewable identification numbers (RINs). Renewable Environmental Solutions, LLC CWT’s main subsidiary is Renewable Environmental Solutions, LLC