Dozing jetlagged and kimchee-ed in front of a Korean Bloomberg feed, a story we first reported on three years ago grabs our attention.
Kirk Benson of Headwaters appears, being interviewed by Bloomberg’s Erin Burnett
BURNETT: Mr. Benson, thanks very much for joining us.
BENSON: Thank you, Erin.
BURNETT: All right. You focus on alternative energy. First of all, could you just explain for us, with oil prices right now almost at $50 a barrel, what does that mean specifically for your business?
BENSON: Well, from the perspective of some of the technologies that we’ve developed, it allows us to move forward aggressively in the commercialization process. There’s clearly ample room for margins, given $45, $50 per barrel oil prices.
BURNETT: So, what exactly – when you see a change in the price of oil, does it directly affect your bottom line in terms of what you do in your business, or does it affect your capital spending? How does it affect your decision-making?
BENSON: It’s not immediately affecting our bottom line. Most of our existing revenue streams are independent to increase in oil prices. But what it does do is it significantly increases the opportunity for us to commercialize some of the newer technologies that we’ve developed.
BURNETT: And what are those? What are the main technologies that you’re focusing on right now?
BENSON: Two of the technologies are related to coal. Those are technologies that convert coal into liquid fuels, either directly or indirectly. We have licensed technologies to coal companies in China, and they’re in the process of building the facilities to use these technologies. But at today’s oil prices, many of these technologies are commercially viable in the United States.
One technology that we’re very excited about is a nanocatalyst technology that we’ve developed that significantly increases the conversion of heavy oils into usable materials. We think that this technology, particularly at today’s oil prices, has a great future.
BURNETT: So how does it work in terms of, you go through this nanotechnology process, and you develop an alternative to oil. In terms of a price per barrel equivalent, what does your technology turn into? I’m trying to give viewers a sense of how competitively priced a nanotechnology-driven oil alternative is.
BENSON: Well, the nanotechnology that we’ve developed for heavy oil actually can increase the conversion of a heavy oil into lighter material by 10 percent to 20 percent. So, this technology, this nanocatalyst technology, would clearly have economic viability at very low oil prices, because you’re taking a heavy crude material and you’re converting that into a diesel or a lighter material.
So, that particular technology is not sensitive to higher oil prices. It’s very viable at quite low oil prices, actually.
The last statement is a little disingenuous. It works at much lower prices if you have an international oil embargo restricting your supplies as South Africa did for much of the seventies, or if you are sitting on a low sulphur coalfield several thousand miles from the nearest oil refinery as one of Headwaters projects is, but its a tough sell to a Texan or a Saudi. Cientifica clients get the very bottom line. Quantified.