| Global Resource Corporation (OTC.PK: GBRC)
Global Resource Corporation, is a developer of a patent-pending microwave technology and machinery that extracts oil and petroleum products from shale deposits, tar sands, bituminous coal and processed materials such as tires and plastics as well as dredged soil from harbors and river bottoms. Its process produces significantly greater yields and lower costs than are available using existing technologies. The process takes place in a vacuum environment that is emission-free, efficient and cost-effective tool for cleaning environmental wastes and toxic materials.
Global Resource Corporation develops microwave technologies to be used in the waste to fuel sector as well as the oil industry’s demand for more efficient extraction, exploration, transportation and refining segments. The company has a unique microwave process that encompasses an oxygen starved environment and a very low level of energy input versus the resulting energy derived. The process is entirely emission free and paves the way for a complete environmentally clean technology that increases the production of useable fuels world wide.
The company has identified several opportunities in the waste and recycling sectors that involve the conversion of many forms of waste to oil and gas. The initial feedstock of choice is tires, municipal solid waste and tanker sludge. All three have been identified as environmental hazards with few recovery options until the development of our technology. To date, their technology has shown enormous amounts of recapture through the entire microwave process, including the benefits of the residual product, Carbon Ash. The result of their process is to maintain a ratio of energy in to energy out of 1 to 15.
In addition, Global Resource has identified the needs and opportunities within the oil industry for exploration, production, transportation, storage and upgrading systems. They have successfully tested several materials in their lab to address the extraction and upgrading possibilities for Tar Sands, Oil shale, heavy oils, coal and drill waste among others. Each of these applications will be approached with the same intent to commercialize and deploy the technology with those companies that have the greatest incentive to make use of their technology , thereby evolving a whole new world of recapture, extraction and upgrading systems.
Global Resource recognizes that most of the opportunities that exist in these large scale operations will require partnerships and/or synergistic relationships. Global Resource believes these relationships will allow entrance in to a multi-billion dollar industry quickly and efficiently by partnering their technology with companies motivated to make the monumental leap to the next generation of waste to fuel technology. The company has identified and will continue to develop these large scale partnerships in an attempt to develop all phases of recovery applications in the renewable energy sector.
Global Resource has also received recognition from:
Popular Science, December 2007. Global Resource was included in their list of 100 Best Innovations of the Year.
Time Magazine, November 12, 2007. Global Resource was included in their list of Best Inventions of 2007.
THE PROCESS
The process requires approved materials to be in a shredded state or such materials reduced in size no larger than 3 inch square pieces. The system uses a hopper or includes an entry hopper where customer’s front-end loader or metered conveyor belt feed system to load the process supplies material to the hopper. The entry feed system hopper/elevator feeds the material to a double gate assembly that actuates to move the material to an intermediate position whereby a vacuum line provision removes the oxygen air from the material in-feed chamber of the assembly. The lower gate then actuates to position the material and dumps it directly into the reactor entry of the in-feed auger screw feeding the main reactor. The internal reactor environment is held constant at 508 torr (mm of Hg) (20 inches of Mercury vacuum throughout). Vacuum pressure will lower as gases are produced. The material passes into the microwave reactor chamber and onto the internal conveyor which moves the material at variable speed under each of the microwave units while through two microwave emitters positioned right angle of the continuous motion product and bombarding the material with hydrocarbon-specific microwaves. This microwave bombardment is absorbed into the material and any hydrocarbons contained in the material are gasified while the system vacuum system pump acts to extract the expanding gas from the reactor chamber. The heavier gases will condense and will be piped directly to a liquid storage tank. The lighter gases will remain a burnable gas and be piped to a gas storage tank where they can be utilized to generate electricity with a turbine generator. The remaining residual materials are conveyed out of the reactor chamber through a reverse process similar to the in-feed process whereby the vacuum is released and the char slag particulate is discharged onto a takeaway conveyor.
The system is closed-looped throughout the entire microwave process and no emissions of gases are introduced into the atmosphere at anytime. Additionally, the lack of oxygen in the process produces no CO2 or CO nor an occurrence of oxidation.
PROTOTYPE
The company is currently testing its second phase prototype machine at Ingersoll Production Systems in Rockford, IL. The first phase machine was a drum type design which helped developed several of the principles to apply in the second phase. The second phase machine is a conveyor type process with design features that makes it unique from any other microwave application and more efficient than conventional heating processes.
The primary purpose of this machine is to confirm the principles that will be utilized in commercial scale operations. They have already successfully demonstrated many of these principles and will continue to make adjustments to implement in the full scale commercial units. The second purpose is to test various feedstocks prior to releasing processes for production.
Recovery Applications
Heavy Oil
Heavy crude oil or Extra Heavy Crude oil is any type of crude oil which does not flow easily. It is referred to as “heavy” because its density or specific gravity is higher than that of light crude oil. Heavy crude oil has been defined as any liquid petroleum with an API gravity less than 20 degrees, meaning that its specific gravity is greater than 0.933.
Heavy oil accounts for more than double the resources of conventional oil in the world. Production, transportation, and refining of heavy crude oil presents special challenges compared to light crude oil. The largest reserves of heavy oil in the world are located north of the Orinoco River in Venezuela, the same amount as the conventional oil reserves of Saudi Arabia. Heavy crude oil is closely related to tar sands, located north and northeast of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Physical properties that distinguish heavy crudes from lighter crude’s include higher viscosity and specific gravity, as well as heavier molecular composition. Extra heavy oil from Orinoco region has a viscosity of over 10,000 centipoise and 10 degree API gravity. Generally a diluent is added and heating stations are required at regular intervals in a pipeline carrying heavy crude to facilitate its flow.
Global Resource Corporation's microwave technology has proven that it is capable of upgrading the heavy oil to a higher API gravity, and therefore there is a tremendous opportunity to save cost in the upgrading process. Independent laboratory results indicate that there is a significant change in the chemistry of heavy oil tested through Global Resource Corporation's microwave technology. The lab reports show that heavy oil with over 1,100 centipoise before being exposed to their technology are reduced to less than 25 centipoise after.
Drill Waste
Drilling mud is used to control subsurface pressures, lubricate the drill bit, stabilize the well bore, and carry the cuttings to the surface, among other functions. Mud is pumped from the surface through the hollow drill bit string, exits through nozzles in the drill bit, and returns to the surface through the annular space between the drilling string and the walls of the bore. As the drill bit grinds rocks into drill cuttings, these cuttings become entrained in mud and are carried to the surface. When the mud becomes too dense, it needs to be replaced and because the mud uses synthetic or diesel oil, this causes the cuttings to be contaminated. The North Sea regulations are 1.0 percent and The Gulf of Mexico (GOM) 6.9 percent for cuttings.
Experiments demonstrate that the GRC process can clean the cuttings and reduce the contamination level to as low as .01 percent. They are also capable of separating the synthetic or diesel oil from the mud without changing the molecular structure in the oils and leaving no hydrocarbons in the mud which also results in clean dirt. This is a big environmental discovery which can offer substantial cost savings for oil companies and their customers.
Tires
Research indicates that there are approximately 300 million tires annually produced in the United States and another 275 million in stockpiles. Tires are being burned for tire derived fuel (TDF), which cause an emission problem. They are also used for playground mulch, and athletic playing fields. These are just a few solutions to address the tire problem, but they are not the answer!
Global Resource Corporation has devoted over 3 years of laboratory experiments identifying a frequency that is most efficient for processing used or discarded tires. GRC has developed a proof of concept machine (Patriot 1) that is capable of processing tires on a continuous basis. An example of GRC's tire processing system: For every 1 ton of tires processed in the GRC Patriot 1, there is 120 gallons of oil, 5000 cubic ft. of combustible gases, 200 pounds of reusable steel and 750 pounds of carbon ash produced which are all marketable commodities.
Bituminous Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish sedimentary rock composed of carbon and hydrocarbons and is the most abundant fossil fuel in the United States. Bituminous coal is a soft coal containing a tar-like substance called bitumen. It is of higher quality than lignite coal but poorer quality than anthracite coal. The carbon content of bituminous coal is around 60 – 80%; the balance is composed of water, air, hydrogen, and sulfur.
By utilizing different power levels and frequencies with bituminous coal, they are obtaining positive results with many variations. One variation changes the amount of fixed carbon that remains in the ash and shows characteristics of a very valuable coke product, along with generating a gas stream consisting mainly of hydrogen and methane. One of the current and growing problems with burning bituminous coal in system furnaces is the CO and CO2 that is emitted. Since the GRC system processes bituminous coal in vacuum, oxygen is not introduced, therefore eliminating the concern of CO and CO2 emissions.
ASR
Automotive shredded residue consists of automobiles and major household appliances. The shredding of automobiles results in a mixture of ferrous metal, non-ferrous metal, and shredded waste called ASR or Fluff. ASR often contains hazardous materials and polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB). ASR, recognized as hazardous waste requires legislative controls in the USA to be put into place and countries throughout the world have also adapted these standards.
The processing of ASR has shown encouraging results in our lab. The company has the ability to reduce the amount of ASR going to the landfill, along with creating renewable energy in the process. By utilizing GRC’s technology for ASR, they offer great savings for companies in this sector and at the same time they are contributing to a cleaner environment.
MSW
Municipal solid waste (MSW) is a waste that is comprised of household waste and commercial wastes collected by a municipality and dumped in landfills. Recyclable material represents one of five broad categories of MSW.
Electricity can be produced by burning MSW as a fuel. MSW power plants, also called waste to energy (WTE) plants, are designed to dispose of MSW and produce electricity as a byproduct of the incinerator operation. Burning MSW can generate energy while reducing the volume of waste by up to 90 percent, an environmental benefit. Burning MSW in WTE plants produces comparatively high carbon dioxide emissions, a contributor to global climate change.
They have successfully tested MSW (paper) with positive results. Their technology is capable of reducing the MSW by 90 percent while producing usable gases that can be used to generate electricity. There are two significant points that make GRC's technology a better option over WTE plants, with the most important being emissions. Since they operate in an oxygen starved environment, they eliminate the concerns with emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Another advantage is the minimal amount of energy that their process utilizes to gasify the waste and generate the electricity.
Oil Shale
The fined-grained sedimentary rock known as oil shale contains significant amounts of kerogen, from which their technology can extract liquid hydrocarbons. Kerogen requires more processing than crude oil, which increases its economic cost as a crude-oil substitute both economically and in terms of its environmental impact. Typical processes require 2 barrels of water to make 1 barrel of oil.
While oil shale is found in many places worldwide, a large part of the world’s supply of oil shale is found in the United States located in the Green River Formation, covering portions of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Estimates of the oil resources from shale within the Green River Formation range from 1.2 to 1.8 trillion barrels.
Global Resource Corporation, through lab experimentation, has identified that there is great potential in utilizing microwave technology to extract hydrocarbons from oil shale. GRC's technology does not require water as part of the process. Their studies indicate that they have the ability to retrieve 90 gallons of oil per ton of shale.
LEADERSHIP
Ken Kinsella, Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Kinsella has extensive senior executive experience in the operations and management of several top organizations including both private and publicly listed NASDAQ companies. His wealth of experience is global and he has conducted business in countries outside the U.S. such as the UK, Japan, Korea, India, Australia, Greater China and throughout Continental Europe.
Most recently he was a Founding Partner in Tribe Equity, a provider of capital and corporate growth strategies to rapidly growing small and medium businesses. Prior to Tribe Equity he was the CEO of Invicta Investments Limited, an organization that specialized in the construction of transactions including international property, energy, renewables and corporate equity deals in the U.S. and Europe. Throughout his career he has been responsible for global business rollouts and strategic expansion including mergers and acquisitions, joint venture execution and strategic alliance partnerships
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