News
“From the back lot of the Wampler’s Farm Sausage facility in Lenoir City, TN, Ted Wampler Jr., says a new technology is being tested that could have global implications. It’s called a Cellulose to Hydrogen Power engine (CHyP engine). It has the potential to change the way we create and distribute electricity by generating an incredible amount of power using natural, sustainable fuel.”
Read the KnoxZine article here.
Article and photo by Paul Clouse
“On any given day, business executives, scientists and chemical engineers from across the U.S. and around the world come to East Tennessee to see for themselves the renewable energy technology developed by Lenoir City-based Proton Power…”
The full article on Dr. Sam Weaver and Proton Power in the Saturday, June 13th edition of the Memphis Daily News can be found here.
We are extremely pleased to announce that Proton Power (PPI) has successfully developed a solution to produce synthetic fuels from biomass able to meet the EPA mandated sulfur requirement of less than 15 ppm for Ultra-Low Sulfur Diesel (USLD).
The process to identify causes for the presence of incidental sulfur in PPI’s renewable diesel fuel – and subsequently implement effective engineering solutions – has been a top R&D priority at the PPI research facilities for a period of a year and a half. PPI can now confirm that the company has proven methods to minimize the concentration of sulfur to below the federally mandated level of 15 parts per million (ppm).
On May 9th, The Knoxville Chamber of Commerce hosted its most prestigious event of the year, the Pinnacle Business Awards, to recognize the area’s top companies. The formal event drew nearly 800 attendees, and included a silent auction followed by a dinner and the awards program.
Proton Power was honored by being named this year’s recipient of the Innovator Award. The Innovator Award is given to an East Tennessee business that has developed a new technology, innovative product or service or applied a business system or service in an innovative way. Previous winners include CTI Molecular Imaging (now Siemens Medical Solutions USA), Radio Systems Corporation, UT-Battelle, and Wampler’s Farm Sausage. PPI is very proud to be this year’s Innovator Award recipient and honored to share the title with so many other companies that make this community great.
Ted Wampler Jr. explains the various initiatives and projects that Wampler's Farm Sausage has taken to be a world leader in sustainable energy and conservation.
The 500kW project at Wampler's Farm Sausage was featured in CAT's Summer 2014 edition of the quarterly publication Run Ready. The Article can be downloaded at the following link:
http://www.protonpower.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/RunReady-Summer2014-ProtonPower.pdf
The annual Roane County Industry Appreciation Breakfast on May 28th was headlined by guest speaker Dr. Thom Mason, director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Mason’s core message was that a part of ORNL’s mission is to offer its unique capabilities and facilities for the development of private enterprise in the Innovation Valley. Following Mason’s remarks, Proton Power was surprised and honored to be recognized as the 2014 Industry of the Year in Roane County.
“Proton Power is a nine-year-old company that began making hydrogen through a patented cellulose to hydrogen power (CHyP) system in 2012. Now, Proton Power is one of the fastest growing industries in Roane County, expanding their existing sites while also acquiring new ones, totaling five now."
"I have been amazed at just what is being accomplished right here (in Roane County) that is having an enormous impact on the world around us,” said Wade Creswell, president and chief executive officer of The Roane Alliance. “There is no greater example I know of than this year’s industry of the year – Proton Power. We are proud to have Proton Power in our community and are excited for their future.”
Sean Hensley, Human Resource Manager, was in attendance to accept the award on behalf of Proton Power.
The full article in Oak Ridge Today can be found here.
http://oakridgetoday.com/2014/06/12/proton-power-named-roane-countys-2014-industry-year/
“We have the advantage of making our own hydrogen. But I tell you, we had come up with something but it was very different. You see, back in the early 2000s we built a system for the University of Tennessee. We headed down the standard path in cellulose to liquid fuels. Like everyone on that path, we had the same catalyzed fluidized bed, and ended up with same thing…”
“But, recently we saw a better way, and just before Christmas we had sort of a miracle, where right out of the process we are getting hydrocarbon molecules, via a very different process. We were stunned, but we’re not really talking about that, we’re still writing the patents.”
Read the entire interview with Dr. Sam Weaver here.
http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2014/05/08/return-of-the-pyromaniax-proton-power-and-its-hydrous-pyrolysis-process-for-super-low-cost-hydrogen/
Proton Power, Inc. was honored to present at an afternoon event on Monday hosted by the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy on the University of Tennessee campus. The engagement was part of a lecture series focused on the topic of “Energy & Environment.” Dr. Sam C. Weaver, founder and President & CEO of Proton Power, spoke at a private luncheon for distinguished out-of-town guests prior to presenting to a capacity audience in the Toyota Auditorium.
The presentation detailed the development to date of Proton Power’s Cellulose to Hydrogen Power (CHyP) technology, with a unprecedented public revealing of recent breakthroughs in the application of this technology to create liquid hydrocarbons, that is, renewable diesel, jet fuel and gasoline, at production costs lower than petroleum fuels.
For anyone unable to attend the event, an archived video of the presentation can be viewed here.
http://bakercenter.utk.edu/monday-may-5-1-pm-powering-a-clean-sustainable-tomorrow/
Boulder, Colorado - July 23, 2013 - Cool Energy, Inc., a clean energy power generation company and sister company of Proton Power, Inc., with headquarters in Boulder, Colorado, announced today that it has been awarded a $1 million Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant form the U.S. Department of Energy. The grant will support a program to demonstrate electricity generation from untapped heat from distributed geothermal sources. The grant will allow Cool Energy to build and test their first 20 kW prototype Stirling engine to generate electricity from co-produced liquids at oil and gas wells. The recoverable heat in these liquids is currently wasted, as is the potentially valuable heat from pumps and compressors, as well as geothermal heat from non-producing wells.
"If widely deployed in appropriate heat recovery sectors, our power generation technology could replace up to 300 fossil fuel power plants,” said Sam Weaver, Jr., CEO of Cool Energy. “Given recent advances in our designs, there is an opportunity for electricity cost savings and emissions reductions in oil and gas fields, which have significant thermal energy sources all around them. This is the most important increase in output capacity that Cool Energy has undertaken since beginning to develop Stirling engines for waste heat recovery six years ago.”
The “GeoHeart Engine” will convert heat from liquids extracted from the ground to make zero-emissions energy. The Cool Energy technology will recapture energy from liquids that are in the temperature range 100C – 200C. This temperature is ideally suited for the company’s low temperature waste heat recovery (WHR) system. The heat can be safely and efficiently converted into electricity that can be used onsite to offset the power needed for the operation of the wells, or sold to the local utility and added directly into the power grid. This approach to oilfield power production will prevent some of the carbon emissions generated from these activities. Cool Energy will also study another application of the GeoHeart Engine, using spent wells that are no longer producing petroleum to heat fluids to make emissions-free electricity.
Cool Energy is a privately-held power conversion equipment corporation based in Boulder, Colorado. The company was founded in 2006 to develop a thermal-to-electricity power generation system for converting waste heat from engines and industrial processes into clean electricity. The company has received grants and contracts from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Colorado Governor’s Energy Office, and has 10 patents awarded or pending.
More information is available at www.CoolEnergy.com.
