AEEA Blog

Shell GameChanger Proposal

Tue, 6 Dec 2011 09:50:25 -0800

In November of 2011 we were selected by Shell Oil Company’s GameChanger program to make a presentation to their panel as a phase 2 process on December 6, 2011. Originally we were planning to fly to Houston to make the presentation. However, since the time allotted for the initial presentation and questions was restricted to 30 minutes, and two of the panel members were in the Netherlands, we were invited to make the presentation via video conference. Since none of us at AEEA were familiar with the Microsoft Live Meeting software and procedures, we made two dry run connections with Richard Smith, our contact at Shell.

Terry Eade made the initial 10 minute presentation, which was based on a business plan specifically designed for Shell and included some slides which addressed GameChanger program objectives. Following the initial presentation, Fred Lightfoot discussed some of the technical aspects, and Meyer Steinberg addressed the chemical aspects included in his patented process for creating methanol. Some of the panel members asked specific questions about our operation.

The following letter describes the outcome of the meeting:

From: Richard.J.A.Smith@shell.com Subject: OUTCOME Screening Panel 2011090037 Lightfoot gasoline from ocean wave energy (external) Dec 6th Date: December 6, 2011 2:46:16 PM MST
To: GX-PT-PTI-TG@shell.com, gamechanger-SIEP@shell.com, frdlightfoot@gmail.com, rmill@wolfenet.com, morchin2@yahoo.com, teade@mac.com, Hessel.deJong@shell.com, mrsteinberg@verizon.net

Dear Terry, Fred, Bill and Meyer
Thank you for your clear and highly professional presentation to the GameChanger Screening panel. It was the outcome of the panel that the idea does not meet the criteria to become a GameChanger project. That is not to say we think idea won’t work or that it’s not commercially viable, just that it does not meet our specific criteria.
Meeting
Dec 6th 10:00 CST
Attendees
Bill Morchin - AEEA, Terry Eade - AEEA, Fred Lightfoot - AEEA, Meyer Steinberg - Consultnt to AEEA, Henk Mooiweer - GameChanger, Willem Rensink - GameChanger, Joep Huijsmans - GameChanger, Chaco van de Sijp - GameChanger, and Richard Smit- GameChanger (sponsor)
Westhollow Technology Centre T-‐2078 Live meeting
Summary of Presentation
In essence the idea is to convert water and atmospheric CO2 to gasoline by means of a chemical process powered by wave energy. This idea shows that the entire process can take place “at Sea” with the method of wave energy adsorption, namely a raft or fleet of barges, also forming the platform on which the
chemical process can take place.
A detailed business plan was presented showing a very significant return on investment over period of years.
Key Features of the idea
Fleet/Raft Wave Energy to Electricity
This is the subject of the US Patent 20100320759 and represents the central piece of differentiating technology. The novelty comes from both the ability to harvest larger waves in regions “far offshore” and from the ability to harvest complex waves efficiently. This in turn is partly enabled by the use of a liquid hydrocarbon as the energy vector.
Chemical Process CO2 to Gasoline
The conversion of CO2 to gasoline via electrolysis of the carbonate is novel and covered by the US Patents
4197421 and 3959094 amongst others. It is noted that this process may be more cost efficient if carried out onshore. The use of Methanol as the liquid hydrocarbon energy vector may be still more efficient as the process could then be continued on shore whilst still providing the condensed conveyance of energy. It is also noted that the patents date from 1980 and so although “novel” the idea is not necessarily new and may be considered to be developed passed the point of “Proof of Concept”.
GameChanger Remit
The premise of a GameChanger project is to progress a revolutionary idea to Proof of Concept. This is done by indentifying the key novel features of the idea and determining the key risks associated with them, which could make or break the idea. The work of a GameChanger project is then to resolve these risks.
The criteria by which all projects are judged are:
1 · Novelty?
2 · Value?
3 · Why Shell?
4 · Is there a doable Plan?  Discussion  The value of the technology and the associated economics are clear.  While the Novelty of the two key aspects of the technology is recognized, the necessity to utilize them both to their full extent is questioned, the ideas may present a more efficient system if used separately (e.g. to produce electricity from waves or to produce Gasoline on shore) or in combination but not in their entirety e.g. to produce Methanol offshore. A niche market would be the Navy who may require diesel from “Gas stations” at sea, but for land based customers such as Shell the transportation of the hydrocarbon and the water to and from the fleet, is not an insignificant issue.  The key “novel” aspects of this technology may be considered proven, the chemical process is 20 years old

and the idea of a compliant floating structure is well established. The remaining aspects of the idea still to be proven may be the connections and the hydraulics required to convert wave induced displacement to electricity. It is more normal for GameChanger project to look at these key aspects that may represent the “fastest route to failure” at a very early stage in development rather than at the idea as a whole at this later stage.
As such the proposal does not meet the criteria to become a GameChanger project, should the proponents wish to identify much smaller and critical component(s) of the idea (economic or technical) that they believe would be game changing idea in its own right then you are free to submit them to GameChanger.
I’d like to say thank you again for taking the considerable time and effort to submit your idea and present it to us, we truly value your efforts and appreciate you sharing your ideas. I hope this result will not put you off submitting any more revolutionary ideas you may have.
Regards,
Richard
Richard Smith GameChanger

BP Alternative Energy Proposal

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 10:03:24 -0700

In August, Fred Lightfoot sent a letter of introduction and a copy of our prospectus to the Alternative Energy section of the BP Oil Company. A copy of that introduction letter and the response from BP are listed below:

To: BP Alternative Energy
AE Ventures

This letter will introduce our organization, Alternative Energy Engineering Associates, LLP, which was formed from senior aerospace, electronic engineers and business analyst. The group was formed to assist in the national quest for a superior alternate energy source. It is felt that the “disruptive innovation” goals, required by AE Ventures, will be met by this concept. AEEA has previously responded to the invitation extended by the BP Alternative Energy organization to entrepreneurs/inventors through its “Venturing – Innovation form”. A two page Prospectus attached to this letter should be considered helpful, but supplementary to your official form and useful in your evaluations. Of course, much more technical and financial information is available upon your request.

Our company has developed a system to profitably produce gasoline from the energy of ocean waves. This system is renewable, domestic and very green. It not only does not pollute the environment, it actually improves it by removing the carbon from the air as part of the production process, essentially reversing the process that occurs when hydrocarbon fuels are burned. Since the system is designed to operate in the open ocean, it also avoids the NIMBY resistance usually encountered by renewable energy systems. It is assumed that as the system operates on the Outer Continental Banks or open ocean, it is expected that most of the local restrictions encountered in near shore locations imposed by overlapping federal, state, local and tribal entities could be avoided or minimized. We have tested our system with scale models and have a Regular U.S. patent pending. The application has been published by the U.S. Patent Office and is available on the Internet.

As the proposed energy concept is centered on the use of federated and self-contained off-shore ocean-qualified barges performing the end-to-end production of gasoline , it is peculiarly well suited as a complement to existing petroleum producing operations such as performed by BP, as it can use common cargo handling infrastructure such as pumping and storage and is compatible with existing pipeline distribution systems. The production can be expanded with essentially free and unlimited feedstock with great flexibility of redeployment to meet market demands.

A two-page prospectus has been attached to give you an overall understanding of our system. We would appreciate the opportunity to answer questions you may have.

Sincerely yours,

Fred M. Lightfoot, PE
Partner

Chemical Engineering Conference

Sat, 30 Apr 2011 07:43:20 -0700

Fred Lightfoot, and Bill Morchin, shared in presenting a paper, authored by the four principals of AEEA, with the same title as the AEEA patent. The presentation was made in the Mary Bates Hall Auditorium at the University of Washington on April 30, 2011 to the Northwest Association of Chemical Engineers. The one-hour presentation of the paper was given at the AIChE –Pacific Northwest Sustainability Conference April 29, 2011 to May 1, 2011, Seattle, WA.

Fred explained the implementation of the alternate energy concept and Bill explained the sequence of chemical reactions and the potential for the system to supply the whole gasoline use of the U.S. with only 1,250 square miles of barge fleets.

This was our third engineering conference and represented a growth in our status. Our first conference was the Oregon Wave Energy Conference where we were invited to give a poster presentation. Our second presentation was at the IEEE International Systems Conference, where we were on the agenda, had a presentation room, and our paper was published in their proceedings. At this latest conference not only were we on the agenda and had our abstract published in their proceedings, we were given their largest presentation venue and were the lead off presentation at their conference.

Puyallup High School Presentations

Tue, 7 Dec 2010 13:54:13 -0800

As a result of the publicity received from the Seattle Times Article, Bill Morchin was invited to make a presentation to two classes at Puyallup High School. Each class had about 40 students in attendance. The presentations included our scale model barges and a review of the technology utilized in the project. Bill also answered their questions about the project and the engineering aspects involved.

The purpose of the presentations was to get the students excited about wave energy in general as well as our specific project. The presentations also sparked an interest in the students to build model barges in their shop class and then test them in the Puyallup High School swimming pool.

According to the shop teacher, Alex Macdonald, the building of carbon fiber models and then testing them in the pool would be very appropriate to their curriculum as well as their newly developed enthusiasm to do something which was very current and exciting. Alex also visited the AEEA web site and related to Bill how impressed he was with the project and how much he appreciated Bill’s presentations.

Bill enjoyed talking to the students and seeing their enthusiasm. All of the partners of AEEA feel that having an opportunity to influence even a few students to pursue studies and a career in green energy technology makes any time we might spend making presentations worthwhile, even if it does not result in any benefit to our firm. Of course, Bill also enjoyed being treated like a celebrity.

Seattle Times Article

Sun, 7 Nov 2010 09:43:19 -0800

Fred Lightfoot contacted a Seattle Times columnist, Danny Westneat, and told him about our project and how it might be a good follow-on to a previous article Danny had written about a retired Boeing engineer. As a result Mr. Westneat penned an article titled “Retirees Float a Bright Idea”.

Since the article was presented with a human interest approach, it referred to the group as the “old fogies” and included a 92 year old retired Boeing engineer, who had left the group about two years before. It also did not mention that the group had formed a partnership (Alternative Energy Engineering Associates, LLP), had a pending patent for the system, a web site, and had replaced the 92 year old engineer with a 69 year old economist. The group has also made presentations at two technical conferences and established several contacts in the alternative energy field.

The article did generate a great deal of interest and resulted in many letters to the editor wanting to know how they could contact the old fogies to offer encouragement, help, or suggest possible resources for furthering the project. Those letters have been forwarded to us and we have been following up by contacting each of the contributors.

Click here to see the original article