Cutting-edge science
is Delta history in the
making
Associated Physics of America offers one-of-a-kind method to make energy from renewable fuels
by Eva Ann Doris
Special to the DBJ
The Delta is home to the blues, white gold, artistic genius and now to what may be the first economically-viable process to
use renewable fuels. The scientific theories and forces of nature that make a Rotary Hydrogen Burner (RHB) operate to efficiently
complete the task it was built for aren’t as complicated as some people think-at least not to the men who have built
and have a patent pending on the only such machine in the world.
However, to a visitor to Associated Physics of America (APA) on Highway 82 east of Greenwood, where one of the revolutionary
RHB’s is housed, the answers as to how and why the machine works aren’t quite as clear as the promising future
applications of the technology, which at this stage are described by the inventors, investors and even outside researchers as“huge.”
The RHB uses an electrolysis process to liberate a minute amount of hydrogen, which in turn is used to make fuel out of
what have been troublesome, cumbersome or otherwise difficult to use renewable fuels. And, it conducts this revolutionary
process at less expense than current methods. By using the resulting energy to fuel boilers, fire boxes or heat tubes, APA
management says their system is a much cheaper source than natural gas.
At the backbone of APA are four men each bringing unique talents and ingenuity to the research and development firms’
management team. Longtime Delta resident and former farmer Bobby Miller is the financial manager; Billy F. Hopper is general
manager/co-founder; Tom Kennen is applications manager; and Deon Potgieter is the head of research and development/
co-founder. Lauren Prewitt is APA’s office manager.
The APA’s patent-pending design for the RHB is the only one of its kind in the world. The RHB can sustain a hydrogen burn
without a back flash and/or flame-out, which opens the door to the use of renewable fuels such as corn, cottonseed, soybean,
Industrial brown mustard seed oil, low Btu value gasses and numerous other similar compounds. The use of hydrogen to create
energy from renewable and fossil-based fuels is far from a new concept, but to date it’s been an expensive and not particularly
viable concept.
“If a person was going to buy hydrogen to burn in helping to create a secondary gas, then why not just go straight to purchasing
gas? Plus, previous attempts at developing hydrogen for use with processing renewable fuels have resulted in the back
flash and/or flame-out problems, which are a safety hazard and a waste of energy,” explains Hopper.
“The RHB’s centrifugal force pulls the hydrogen down a hollow shaft to where it cannot go backwards. When a hydrogen
flame is coming out the end of a hose, it can travel forward or backward at almost the same rate of speed. The latter being
why combustion engineers and others alike knew hydrogen could do all these wonderful things, but that flame stability was the
key to a stable system-so that’s when Deon came up with the separated “hollowed shaft” chamber design. It pulls the hydrogen
with centrifugal force so that it doesn’t have a choice but to go forward. That was the birth of the RHB,” says Hopper.
Potgieter put the design on paper, and he and Hopper found a manufacturer that could actually do the mill spec work. That
is when we decided to actually build the first RHB, says Hopper. The first test was 75 percent cottonseed oil and 25 percent
water and small amount of Hydrogen - to produce fuel. The strengths of this system appear to be abundant, but the scientific
principle getting the most attention is the ability to make energy from renewable fuels that characteristically have a low
volatility level, which historically meant that to burn it, it had to be mixed or co-fired with a fossil fuel.
“If you are making use of a raw vegetable oil and co-firing it with a fossil-based fuel, all you are doing is trying to make
use of a renewable by way of a non-renewable, which you should not be using in the first place,” says Potgieter. “So the
problem had been to find ways to make use of low volatile fuels such as raw vegetable oils, agricultural waste streams and
even industrial waste-streams without having to pre-heat or co-fire the potential fuels with fossil-based ones. We will now
be able to make use of those without having to depend on a single drop of fossil-based fuels.”
The use of hydrogen can be an obstacle because it’s expensive and comes with storage and transportation concerns.
Confirmation of an emerging concept
“APA accomplishes the hydrogen addition by adding water to the bio-fuel, and then using a small amount of electricity to
produce hydrogen as needed to smooth out the variability of the bio-fuel,” explains M. J. Plodinec, director of the Diagnostic
Instrumentation and Analysis Laboratory (DIAL) at Mississippi State University. Plodinec was asked to discuss the scientific
soundness of APA’s RHB for Mississippi’s Land, Water and Timber Board.
“APA’s concept is logical and relatively simple since the only additional equipment is the hydrogen generator. The data APA
has been able to collect so far; other work we are aware of; and basic science and engineering principles all indicate the RHB
is based on good science and engineering,” says Plodinec. “Simply put, addition of hydrogen to the bio-fuel to improve combustion
ought to work, and APA has shown that it does. We believe there is potentially a huge market for this device, particularly
in industrial boilers. Most importantly, the RHB can play a key role in strengthening agriculture in this state.”
The RHB can make use of alternative energy sources and even provide a way to dispose of troublesome waste-stream oils
such as slop oil from off-shore oil platforms.
“However, APA is steered toward making use of renewable fuels. Our equipment is steered toward that, especially as it
relates to agriculture,” says Potgieter.
Thus far they haven’t found a low volatile fuel that won’t work in the RHB, but they are particularly enthused about industrial
brown mustard seed oil for its adaptability to the system and because it could perhaps be grown here in Mississippi and
provide an alternative crop to some farmers. “It is planted and grown much like wheat, so we are going to try a little and see
if it will grow down here,” says Hopper.
At this stage of development, the team sees the possibilities as endless, and they believe they can provide a cheaper energy
source and create additional uses for renewable fuels.
“As long as natural gas is $4.50 per MmBtu’s and above, we can compete or be cheaper than what someone pays for it in
today’s market,” says Kennen.
“This is the absolute first practical way of making use of what industry and government have been hoping to accomplish
for years: being able to make use of these renewable substances,” says Potgieter. “In our case it is an actual, practical and
financially-viable application for today. It is a way, method and means to use a low volatile fuel, which would otherwise not
have been useable and to do so without the added cost of a fossil-based fuel.”
As word has spread throughout the nation about the RHB, the APA office is being inundated with people inquiring about specific
fuels and waste products.
“Everyone is coming up with what they think they can do with this to meet their need,” says Hopper. With a Fuel Test RHB
now on site, testing for those specific needs will progress as allowed by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Depart
ment of Environmental Quality.
APA is a research and development firm. The license to manufacture, distribute and install the RHB goes to a company called
DuoMetric CT Inc., which at this stage is a wholly-owned subsidiary of APA. APA will remain a research and development
firm to dictate the direction of further development.
“We are hoping for a manufacturing site to be in the state of Mississippi,” says Miller. “We are committed to making this
venture good for the Delta and for Mississippi. Commissioner of Agriculture Dr. Lester Spell has been very supportive and we
consider this a ‘Make Mine Mississippi,’ project.”
“This is a new markets-created landmine — not only from direct employment in APA subsidiaries, but then to residual
employment later on,” says Kennen.
“The base productivity is what raises taxable income and raises money for the state,” says Potgieter. “It’s not just the
people involved in manufacturing and the day-to-day installation, but as a whole there will be quite an impact on the state. We
are serious about wanting to keep everything within the state.”
Phase II: a virtual endless method of disposal.
With the patent pending and confidence level high in the RHB, which can use liquids and gas to produce energy, the team went
to work to find ways to use solids for energy and to provide an environmentally-friendly and economical disposal method for
various solid material that would otherwise go into the waste stream. The result of that idea is the development of their Test
Bed Gasifier.
“They complement each other and allow us to make use of not only a gas and a liquid fuel through the RHB but also a solid
fuel. You can throw a solid in the gasifier, and turn it into a synthesis gas,” says Miller.
“Our first test was done on forest residues such as pine needles, pine cones, bark and chips. It worked as expected — beautiful
and stunning,” says Potgieter.
Even though the forest residue has been the only waste product put through the system, the method potentially applies to
many other solid waste products including cotton stalks and poultry litter, which would be of a particular benefit to Mississippi.
“Its potential is phenomenal,” says Potgieter. “Not only is it viable, but this type of gasifier is one-tenth of the price of
other comparable systems.”
The gasifier is designed as a modular system, which means everything gets built by the same design. There are no different
models. Because of the modular design, it’s configurable as different types of gasification systems such as pressurized/non
pressurized, up draft/down draft, fluidized bed and numerous others.
“It allows you to use a multitude of feed stock (fuel) without changing the gasifier,” says Potgieter. “A lot of research is
done on specific types of gasifiers. It runs one way, and that’s it. It costs too much money to reconfigure it to another design.
Ours allows for us to try a multitude of different feed stocks on a multitude of different types of gasification processes.”
The versatility of the system can save time and money in being able to design specific gasification systems for various
industries such as the poultry industry. This is the only modular test bed gasifier in the country. It would allow for the team
to take, for example, the poultry industry as a market and design, develop and implement a system to their specifications.
“We can do that at a fraction of the cost of anyone else because we can do real world comparative testing at the same time
using both different feed stock and different types of gasification systems” says Potgieter. “With the poultry industry, we
can possibly rid them of the litter and provide their energy use at the same time.”
Miller says another immediate need within the state is a way to get rid of juvenile pine trees.
“The Commissioner asked us to find some way to get rid of chicken litter and juvenile pine. We have a million acres of juvenile
pine with no value, but through this system, the pine could have a value of several thousand dollars an acre in BTU value,”
says Miller. “The opportunities are endless.”
For more information on APA and the RHB, visit their Web site at ww.AssociatedPhysics.com, or telephone 662-453-
3379 / 662-451-5400. DBJ
