[Rhodes22-list] The Hydrogen Economy

[brad haslett]

Roger,

I'm off to do some re-plumbing on my other house so
the world's energy balance will have to wait.  Here's
a few quick points.  You are correct, corn growers are
loathe to give up their subsidies which any bio-mass
fuel program will eventually require.  Even
universities that are heavily invested in bio-mass
such as the University of Iowa are risk adverse.  My
gut feeling is that eventually the market will evolve
into a handfull of players so unless you think one of
the big boys will buy you out, the risks are indeed
high.  

If you want to pitch your deal to ADM, e-mail me
offline.  I've got some inside contacts there.

Brad


--- Roger Pihlaja <cen09402 at centurytel.net> wrote:

> Brad,
> 
> In the crude oil refinery, the jet fuel cut in the
> primary distillation
> column is always in-between the gasoline cut and the
> diesel fuel cut.  i.e.
> less vapor pressure than gasoline and more vapor
> pressure than diesel fuel.
> This would make the cloud point or gel point
> temperature of jet fuel lower
> than diesel fuel as well.  That would make sense for
> high altitude aircraft.
> Lowering the gel point temperature of bio-diesel
> fuel doesn't seem like it
> would be an especially difficult problem to solve in
> an ecologically
> friendly way.  But, maybe there are other issues as
> well.
> 
> My Bio-Energy Corp. isn't the sort of enterprise
> that can be started up in
> one's garage.  We're talking about high tech
> manufacturing of big industrial
> equipment here.  My initial manufacturing site was
> going to be at a steel
> fabrication company that had gone out of business in
> the last recession.
> The facility is located about 6 miles from my house.
>  Besides being
> available at an attractive purchase or lease price,
> I was interested in this
> facility because it already had the HD
> infrastructure in place I would need
> to build my products - things like 200' X 50' bays
> with 30' ceilings, big
> overhead traveling cranes, sandblast & paint
> facilities, big welding
> equipment, appropriately sized water, sewer,
> electric, and natural gas
> utilities to support the operation, zoned for heavy
> industry, lots of room
> outside for marshalling the steel & other
> pieces/parts required, good access
> to road and rail transport, etc.  I also planned to
> make extensive use of
> outside contractors to build subassemblies.  The
> Sanford facility would be
> more of an assembly & test site.
> 
> As I said, unless I can negotiate an exclusive
> license to practice my own
> invention from SVSU, the risks involved with
> starting this business are
> unacceptably high.  I would envision the patent
> owned by SVSU and the
> Michigan Corn Growers Association would be only the
> 1st in a "picket fence"
> of IP I would erect around my technology.  As part
> of the negotiations with
> the university, I've offered to partner with SVSU in
> the forms of joint R&D
> projects, going after government grant money
> together, sponsoring student
> coop assignments in my engineering dept after
> Bio-Energy Corp. got
> established, etc.  I've tried to present myself &
> Bio-Energy Corp. as SVSU's
> "poster boy" for how to do an entrepreneurial
> incubator, their answer to the
> governor and state legislatures call for new
> start-ups in Michigan.  The
> engineering and business school faculty are all
> behind me 100%.  But, this
> technology and this sort of business is so far
> outside of the university's
> comfort zone that all they can see are dollar signs
> and they are looking for
> the quickest way to turn a profit from this patent
> with minimal investment &
> future involvement on their part.  Hence their
> attempts to market the
> technology to the big players in this business.  Or,
> maybe it's the ultimate
> vote of no confidence regarding my ability to
> actually pull this off!  At
> the end of the day, I think it's more important this
> technology actually
> gets implemented by whatever means.  It's nothing
> personal, it's just
> business.
> 
> The Michigan Corn Growers Association's hands aren't
> clean in this matter
> either.  It turns out the corn farmers have been
> benefiting from crop
> subsidies for so long that they aren't especially
> thrilled at the prospect
> of having to pull out all the stops and grow as much
> corn as possible.  For
> whatever reason, the Michigan Corn Growers
> Association hasn't been
> especially supportive of my efforts either.  They
> won't meet with me and
> don't even return my phone calls.
> 
> Pretty soon, I may have to make a decision whether I
> move to Kansas City, MO
> to head up a multi-disciplinary group working on
> ways to sample and detect
> nuclear, chemical, and biological hazards or work
> for Broin, the #2 player
> in the bio-fuels industry.   But, at the moment, I'm
> just an under employed
> nerd with 3 college degrees trying to make ends meet
> by substitute teaching.
> Stay tuned!
> 
> Roger Pihlaja
> S/V Dynamic Equilibrium
> 
> 
> > > Roger,
> > >
> > > Unfortunately for you, most big businesses
> operate
> > > under the principle of "it's easier to ask
> forgiveness
> > > than permission" and that includes universities.
>  The
> > > Wright brothers didn't patent the airplane, they
> > > patented the three axis of flight and then spent
> the
> > > remainder of their lives unsuccessfully
> defending the
> > > patent.  I think the bio-mass fuel market will
> follow
> > > a natural oligopoly pattern just as petroleum
> refining
> > > has.  ADM and Volkswagon are already doing joint
> > > research.  The big grain processers will also be
> the
> > > big bio-fuel producers for obvious reasons.  For
> the
> > > time being there are a few mom-and-pop operators
> but
> > > they won't last.  The problem with biodiesel as
> jet
> > > fuel is the low temperature jelling issue.  If
> that is
> > > solved, there is no reason biodiesel won't work
> in
> > > jets.  Gas turbine engines aren't too fussy
> about fuel
> > > until the ambient temperature gets below
> freezing.
> > > Dr. Diesel designed the engine to run on peanut
> oil
> > > but crude based diesel came along and that was
> the end
> > > of it, or not!
> > >
> > > Brad Haslett
> > > "CorsShen"
> > >
> > >
> > > --- Roger Pihlaja <cen09402 at centurytel.net>
> wrote:
> > >
> > >> Brad,
> > >>
> > >> The whole issue of how Dr. Schilling and I are
> > >> coinventors on a patent that
> > >> is mostly "owned" by Saginaw Valley State
> University
> > >> (SVSU) and partly by
> > >> The Michigan Corn Growers Association has been
> > >> covered before on the list.
> > >> SVSU's intellectual property policy only grants
> a
> > >> small royalty stream to
> > >> the inventors.  Dr. Schilling isn't interested
> in
> > >> anything but the royalty
> > >> stream.  But, I've been trying to negotiate an
> > >> exclusive license to practice
> > >> my own invention from SVSU since last April. 
> SVSU
> > >> is pursuing bigger fish,
> > >> like the Archer Daniels Midland Corp. in an
> attempt
> > >> to maximise the royalty
> > >> revenue stream to the university in as short a
> time
> > >> frame as possible.
> > >> Without the exclusive license to practice, it's
> > >> nearly impossible to attract
> > >> the required start-up capital.  In addition the
> > >> risks involved starting up
> > >> my Bio-Energy Corp. are much greater if SVSU is
> free
> > >> to license the
> 
=== message truncated ===



		
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