From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Aug 27 2002 - 11:34:53 MDT
> http://pacific.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2002/08/26/story1.html
>
> Forrest Jacobi
A Big Island company will be the exclusive seller of a new
bladeless-turbine technology the manufacturer says will drastically
reduce costs for electrical power generation and hydrogen fuel
production for use in fuel cells and automobiles.
The Hydrogen Renewable Energy Enterprise, or T.H.R.E.E., signed a deal
last week with Utah-based International Automated Systems Inc., which
accidentally stumbled upon the new, patent-pending technology while
doing research on other products, said Randy Johnson, vice president of
business development for the Utah company.
The breakthrough could one day be seen as being as important a
discovery
as the cotton gin, says Jack Dean, president of Hilo-based T.H.R.E.E.
"In much the same way
people could look back and say, wow, what a
revolutionary new idea that allows us to move to a totally different
level of self-generation," said Dean, a former executive for Puna
Geothermal.
Because the bladeless turbine is one-tenth the cost of a traditional
turbine, it's able to provide better efficiencies in cogeneration
applications such as heating water or running chillers for air
conditioners and bring the cost of producing hydrogen down to where it
is equal to or below the cost of gasoline, Johnson says.
"To use the electrolysis process to generate hydrogen required for a
fuel cell is about three times more than gasoline, probably more than
that," Johnson said.
"We can make hydrogen, we estimate, at least at the price of gasoline
and possibly closer to the price of natural gas."
Dean plans to incorporate the turbine into a power plant he says will
be
small enough and inexpensive enough to be affordable for homeowners and
small companies. The turbine allows the power plant to be miniaturized
for use in homes and small businesses, and owners can sell any unused
electricity back to the utility company.
"The power plant can be a cogeneration facility that maximizes
available
energy sources to minimize actual energy costs," he said.
By better regulating the balance between thermal energy needs and
electrical energy needs, Dean says customers can customize systems to
meet their specific situations. That means they can ensure a high
thermal load in the middle of the day, when air conditioners more
likely
are being used and lights are off, and a reversal of that situation in
the evening, he says.
"Our power plant can go in and more accurately track the load a
business
or home is using and allow it to ramp up and down as needs change
throughout the day," Dean said. "We're estimating at this point that
[customers] can produce their own power or energy at far less than half
of what they're paying now."
Instead of using blades, the turbine manufactured by IAS uses
supersonic
nuzzles to propel it, Johnson says.
"Our turbine doesn't require expensive blades, so the maintenance on it
is very simple and inexpensive," Johnson said. "The big issue is we are
able to efficiently use low-quality steam and to adjust the temperature
of the steam without incurring difficult maintenance or a huge shift in
efficiency."
While a conventional turbine must use steam, the bladeless turbine can
use liquids, vapors or a combination of the two. That makes it ideal
for
use with geothermal energy sources that, until now, had to separate
vapors from liquids, Dean said.
Dean expects most of the systems he sells in Hawaii to be
solar-powered,
and is talking with some solar companies about partnerships. Biomass or
propane also can be used to fuel the power plant system.
The new technology could speed up the time it takes to bring fuel cell
applications to the mainstream public, possibly by 2010 instead of the
15 to 20 years some experts say it will take before fuel cells are
widely used.
"It's coming a lot quicker than most people ever imagined," Dean said.
"By having the means to make low-cost electricity, it makes economic
sense for people to make hydrogen for use in fuel cells at times when
the sun isn't shining to run their businesses."
A demonstration system should be set up on the Big Island in a couple
of
months, at which point Dean may hire employees.
"Just about everybody can use it because it's so adaptable on a
cogeneration basis," Dean said. "Anybody that can take advantage of
thermal electrical load as well as electrical load should be very
interested."
----------------------
http://www.iaus.com/newsEnterprise.htm
On Verge of Product Roll-Out, Utah Firm Expects to be in the Black by
Next Year- By Lara Jones, Assistant Editor
Salem, Utah-based International Automated Systems (IAS) is preparing to
bring its first products to market, which could put the company in the
black in 2002.
Founded in 1988, the company has 15 patents issued or pending,
including
Order, Pay & Go and the Propulsion Turbine, according to Randale
Johnson, vice president of marketing and business development.
The first product allows for payment with cash, check, credit card or
proprietary store card (secured by IASıs patented automated fingerprint
technology) without clerk assistance. IAS has been testing the
check-out
technology at U-Check supermarket, a 25,000 square foot store in Salem,
where customers are able to scan and pay for any quantity of groceries
without the assistance of a clerk.
Johnson said IAS has struck a deal with Pennsylvania-based Schematics
to
open as many as 10 fully-automated supermarkets featuring IAS's Order
Pay & Go. In addition, the company is negotiating with a few nationwide
fast-food franchises to beta test the technology this quarter.
Regarding its market potential, Johnson said Order Pay & Go can work
"anywhere you exchange a payment" for goods and services. IAS's second
product roll-out is in a very different field: turbines.
The company has developed a patent-pending new design called the
Propulsion Turbine, which has been tested in both a university setting
and on-site at a Utah geothermal plant, and costs one-tenth of
traditional turbines.
"We utilize a technology that is based upon supersonic rocket nozzles
to
create the propulsion," explained Johnson. "We donıt use blades. The
impact of the expansion of steam is going away from our turbine."
Johnson said IAS is in discussions with a major western utility about a
testing-and-licensing deal for its new, "bladeless" turbine. In tests,
it has shown the potential to produce electricity at lower cost than
traditional turbines in geothermal environments.
"I see it having an application in every market, anywhere where you can
get a cheaper turbine that runs an efficiency that's equal or better
than what they already have- it's going to go everywhere, because
there's no reason to deal with the maintenance costs and the difficulty
of installation, design tolerances and all the other issues that come
along with the typical turbine," he said, noting "it's a market that
hasn't changed in 100 years."
Johnson said IAS is in an exciting transition period, moving from more
than a decade of research and development to market. While there is no
income now, he said, "We project that we'll be in the black here in
2002. We want to have sales here this quarter, including beta sites."
Founded in 1988, International Automated Systems Inc., develops
high-technology products for diverse markets such as energy production,
wireless communications, consumer purchasing and financial
transactions.
The company, founded by former AT&T communications engineer Neldon
Johnson, employs 18 people.
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