"I love the smell of exhaust. Smells like... profit."
Northville-based Climate Technologies is a 37-year old company that specializes in industrial climate control. This stable business is poised to explode with the development and marketing rights for fumes-to-fuel technology—which utilizes VOC fumes produced in industrial processes as energy.
Ford Motor Company and DTE hold the patents on the technology, but have given marketing and manufacturing rights to Climate Technologies for its "help in the early development stages," according to president Walt Zimmerman. He says, "We now have to build that business and tell that story worldwide."
Fumes-to-fuel makes use of exhaust that is a standard by-product of various industrial processes such as painting, printing, microchip production, oil refining and wood finishing. Because the exhaust is regulated, it must be captured and incinerated, a costly proposition for a factory.
What fumes-to-fuel does is concentrate the VOCs in the exhaust to a point where they will burn, thereby creating fuel that can power a generator that can manufacture electrical energy for the plant. The technology is currently in use at Ford's Rouge Plant and Michigan Truck in Wayne.
Zimmerman does the math. "This process can reduce energy consumption by 90% and green house emissions by 90%." To run a standard VOC incinerator can cost $100 per cubic foot per minute (CFM) of exhaust – and an industrial paint shop can blow from 100,000 to 200,000 CFMs. Zimmerman says fumes-to-fuel can cost just $17 per CFM. "That's a huge energy savings that would typically provide a two-year or better payback – on a system that costs more than $1 million."
Zimmerman is shopping the concept all over the world, and sees huge potential for his company. "We're presently a small company that typically does $2-5 million per year in this economy. Our business plan, which is based on research we've done at the University of Michigan with business school consultants shows us growing from a $2 million-per-year company into $200 million-per-year company in about five years if the business plan works out." He envisions his staff of eight growing to 70 or 80 as well as spin-off growth accruing to partners such as engineers, fabricators and contractors. The company is currently exploring the possibility of housing its fumes-to-fuel efforts at Detroit's TechTown.
Zimmerman says, "This technology is good for business, good for the economy and good for the environment. This is a worthwhile endeavor – it's good for everybody, from us to the end user."
Source: Walt Zimmerman, Climate Technologies
Writer: Kelli B. Kavanaugh
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