Disa

At the University of Wyoming, the MBA in Energy Management program included a week-long backpacking trip as a team-building exercise. As tentmates during the excursion, Greyson Buckingham and John Lee got to spend a lot of time chatting. “One of our conversations was, ‘Should we find a way to work together?’” says Buckingham. They ended up entering entrepreneur and grant competitions, always faring well. “Our main thesis was, ‘Can we find a way to introduce a solution that benefits the environment, while improving the bottom line for operators?’” says Buckingham. “Disa was born and we’ve focused the last six years on bringing that solution to light.” The company is headquartered in Casper, Wyo., with a satellite office in the Denver area. 

“Disa is short for disassociation,” explains Buckingham. “We disassociate composite material. In layperson’s terms, we make it easier to separate valuable minerals from waste material.” He adds that nearly four percent of global electricity consumption is used to “break rocks apart.” Disa, however, reduces the amount of energy needed for mineral processing. Additionally, the company’s validated technology can also be used to economically remediate legacy mine sites. In the western United States alone, there are 15,000 abandoned uranium sites. 

“As that uranium oxidizes on the surface, it can leach into waterways, proving to be quite harmful to the surrounding populations and to the surrounding environment,” says Buckingham. “The only alternatives right now are to haul everything off-site or bury everything on-site. We engage in waste minimization where we convert a liability into an asset by separating the constituents of concern from the benign material and then recycling the constituents of concern and putting them to productive use.” 

Disa participated in the 2020-21 cohort of the Creative Destruction Lab-Rockies at UCalgary. 

Visit Disa’s website for more information. 

Disa has received investment from UCeed, a venture philanthropy fund accelerating UCalgary and community-based startup companies to advance problem-solving research, create jobs and fuel the economy. A key program in the UCalgary innovation ecosystem, UCeed bridges the gap between innovation, demonstration and commercialization, and is managed by UCalgary’s knowledge-transfer and business incubator, Innovate Calgary. 

UCeed Energy Fund is made possible through the philanthropic support of Calgary entrepreneur and community leader Don Archibald, with additional philanthropic support from the Tamaratt Fund at the Calgary Foundation, and funding from UCalgary’s Global Research Initiative.