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Weekly UpdatesA local machine shop making pneumatics and hydraulics components wants to be on the leading edge of the green fuel revolution.
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Titan Worldwide Inc. has signed a partnership deal with a U.S. bio-crude oil producer to help develop and manufacture a commercial refineries to make diesel fuel from biomass. Titan president/CEO Jay Currie calls the business potential for his firm "enormous" if their manufacturing deal with BTE (Biofuels Technologies Enterprises) of Cheyenne, Wyo. becomes reality.
BTE intends to commercialize a patent pending technology called direct liquefaction that produces bio-crude oil in a generator from biomass like wood, grass and cooking oils. Currie said the ideal biomass material is micro-algae which can be harvested easily can sustainably regrow itself within hours, has a high energy content and has as much as 86 per cent lower emissions than fossil fuel.
"The characteristics of micro-algae are so close to standard fossil crude," said Currie, whose company has a $400,000 stake in the venture.
"The science has been around forever," but the technology has been shelved for years because of the fluctuations in the oil markets. Until now, the direct liquefaction bio-oil generator has only been lab tested in a pressure vessel at the university level in the U.S.
A member of Titan is meeting with BTE's scientific research team this spring to talk about the nuts and bolts of putting together the reactor used in the production equipment. Titan Worldwide is the impressive-sounding marketing arm of Thunder Bay Hydraulics.
The Montreal Road company is a 40-year-old family-owned pneumatic and hydraulics shop that makes and ships custom-ordered scissor lifts, hydraulic and pneumatic cylinders to the U.S., United Kingdom, Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, China and Korea.
The company designs, builds and installs complete compressed air systems, electrical units and instrumentation for major mill operations. Much of their custom-made hydraulic and pneumatic cylinders head to distributors around the world.
They also make amazing underground parking systems for Harding Steel of Denver, Colorado.
"We're probably one of the best kept secrets around."
The relationship with BTE started out as a pure fluke when its president/CEO Lonnie Cumberland was searching online for some off-the-shelf hydraulic cylinders and pumps and found the Titan website.
"He was looking to build this process himself,' said Currie who realized BTE didn't have the technical know-how on designing and making a reactor capable of withstanding high temperatures and pressures of more than 3,000 PSI.
"Lonnie has been building a team of scientists but he didn't know the nuts and bolts. He wasn't looking for someone to build it when he found us."
Cumberland has gathered all the published university research available on direct liquefaction and is meeting with Titan to work out the specifications on a piece of equipment.
"The first order of business is get a generator in place to put biomass or wood waste and produce oil out the end," said Currie. "Once we do that, there are players out to the side with big dollars and they're waiting in the wings to see this work in the real world."
Once ah the legal paperwork is done, they hope to have a seminar for interested Thunder Bay investors. Titan has secured 10,000 blocks of 250 shares each which are available to local investors for $1,000 US per block. BTE is looking to raise $2 million US, with $750,000 of that earmarked for the prototype and the rest for product testing, lab analysis and trials.
Already $100,000 has been invested locally and placed in trust by Shaffer Jobbit law firm until the contractual details emerge of how this venture will be structured.
"We will hold the money in trust until we meet a certain threshold and know we can get a piece of equipment out of it," said Currie. "Only then will we disperse the funds. If we can't meet it, everyone gets their money back."
This process has drawn some interest from the Northwestern Ontario Innovation Centre and the company is in the process of filing a funding application to the National Research Council.
www.titanworldwide.com
www.thunderbayhydraulics.com
By IAN ROSS
Northern Ontario Business
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