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!
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