Tomorrow's agenda

Tomorrow we are meeting with the two largest platinum mines in the world.   They use 25% of all of South African's available power to do the processing of platinum, and they are very interested in our business model.  Should be a good few meetings.  We have to get up very early.   It has been a very busy week thus far.   No complaints.    Talk to you soon.  

Our travels today...all going very well.

Russell, our driver, he is awesome.

This is the University of South Africa, the tuition is free

Ken and I on the way to visit with the Department of Trade and Industry...it was and excellent meeting.

Our first drive to Petoria to visit the Department of Energy. What the heck is that steering wheel doing on that side of the car? If I was driving we would have had multiple wrecks by now because you have to drive on the left side of the road. Pretty cool.

It is spring here and these are some beautiful purple trees that I saw on the way to one of our meetings.

Here is the lobby of the Inn where I am staying. Very nice and comfortable. Our host are awesome as well.

The sounds at night and dinner

We just finished eating a venison appetizer and an ostrich steak.   It was simply amazing.  Now i am writing to all of you and hearing all types of wild life in the bush.  It is really something - they are SOOO loud!   Toto, we are not in Kansas anymore.   

Here is my partner, Ken Cassutt

The flight and beyond

October 28, 2013   We are off!   I am writing this somewhere well off the coast of South America in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.   We are flying in a Boeing 777-200 LR (Long Range).   I have no idea what time it is and don't care.   I can see that we still have 11 hours to go to our destination – dinner is over and so is the movie I was watching.   I really lucked out on my seats; I am setting in an aisle seat with NO BODY in my row!!   The flight attendant told me that I should buy a lottery ticket.  I can see first class from my seat and each seat has a separate cabin type structure and the seat conforms to a bed…very cool, but the price of such a seat is not so cool (~$10K).  So now that I have the two seats open to my left, I can stretch out as well and my seat cost about 1/10 of the price of first class.   The triple 7 is a great aircraft, and it is huge.  Hearing those engine turn over was awesome….the immense power.   Very cool – OK I am going to try to get some sleep.  

October 29, 2013.  OK, this is officially the longest continuous flight I have ever flown, and we still have four hours left.   So, that would make it about 12:30 Jo’burg time.  I was able to grab a quick shave etc…and I feel much better.   All in all, this has not been so bad especially having the entire row to myself.   So, let me take a quick moment and let all of you know what the heck I am doing all the way down here.   I started a company over four years ago with my partner Ken Cassutt from Santa Fe’.  It was our intent to find unique and profitable green technologies.  A year after we started our first venture, we started a second one called Emissions Tech Partners, Inc. (ETP).   Through our general discovery with the other business, we found a green technology that focused on stationary emitters of pollutants (C02, S0x, N0x, and other harmful green house gases).   This technology was invented by a company called Skyonic.  Their website is www.Skyonic.com   They have patented a process whereby they can transform pollution into everyday products such as baking soda, chlorine, bleach, hydrochloric acid, limestone, and more.   Ken and I met Skyonic about 2 ½ years ago and we both quickly realized that they were on to something that could truly be a revolutionary process as well as a bipartisan solution to green house emissions.  Fast forward to May of 2013.  Skyonic was awarded $128 million to build the first conversion plant of its kind in San Antonio, Texas.  They broke ground on it one month ago and it should be operational and producing a bunch of baking soda in Sept/Oct 2014.   In addition, Skyonic has a very impressive board of directors comprised of GE, BP, Conoco Phillips, as well as a few other big names in the business.   They were also awarded a significant grant from the US Dept. of Energy.   Now that they have been able to prove that this process works on a commercial scale, other countries are now very interested in working with them, but Skyonic cannot be everywhere at the same time, so they have to be very selective with the projects they choose and their locations.   They are in a variety of phases with other projects in China, Russia, South Korea, Canada, and South Africa.   Skyonic has authorized ETP to work on the South African project and this trip is specifically intended for us to gather some very specific information about they type of coal they burn, the composition of the pollutants, as well as many other very detailed questions.   Once we gather all of that information, we will come back to the U.S. with our data in hand, and meet with Skyonic and collectively we will develop a financial model that should be presented to many parties in South Africa sometime in January or February.  

Another interesting point, we have developed a very close relationship with another company that is extremely well connected inside South Africa, and through their help and our own independent work we have been able to line up some great meetings.   I will share with you about those as they come about.   If all goes well, we will establish a South African based company to run the operation, and Skyonic as advised us that they see an advantage working with ETP on other projects through out the world.   Clearly, this is all I want to do for the rest of my life.  We are still in the early stages, but everything seems to be very promising and no risk, no reward.  But the coolest thing is being a part of this solution and having even the smallest impact.  It is humbling to say the least.

I promise that tis blog will NOT be all work related because all work and no play makes me a dull boy!   So, I plan on spending most of this blog discussing the culture, food, animals, etc..   Of course I will touch on some of the meetings, but I will not bore you with the technical details.   However, there is a great article that was recently published that does dive pretty deep into this technology and its profound reach…so if you would like a copy of the article please shoot me an email wonka44@gmail.com and I will get it over to you as soon as I can. 

We now have 3 hours and 15 minutes left.   I will sign off for now, and put something up when I get to the hotel.   Cheers!

FYI on this blog. If you want to post a comment keep two things in mind, (1) this blog is being seen by many people and (2) I think you have to set up a google account in order to comment or ask questions. It is very straight forward, only takes a couple of seconds and it is free. OK, the Taxi shows up tomorrow a 5:00 AM. My next post will be from my Hotel on Tuesday I hope all of you have a great week!

The South African Flag

Well, I am off. Tomorrow morning I will leave Seattle at 7:35 AM and arrive in Johannesburg the next day at 3:35 PM. It will be about a 25 hour trip all together, then we have a pretty significant ride to the hotel. I will post pictures and thoughts throughout my trip. I will also let all of you know what the heck I am doing halfway around the world. I will write something on the VERY LONG flight over...OMG!!!!