[Rhodes22-list] The Hydrogen Economy

[Roger Pihlaja]

Brad,

I've already tried ADM in several different ways with no luck.

Roger

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "brad haslett" <flybrad at yahoo.com>
To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Sent: Sunday, January 09, 2005 8:07 AM
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] The Hydrogen Economy


> 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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