Costa Rica Refined

Ariel Lovelace, CEO of Lovelace N.A. of Fort Smith, is leaving for Costa Rica on April 7 to sign a contract to build 14 refineries in that country.

The Costa Rican government is putting up $15 million for the design and engineering fees, Lovelace said. The first refinery will be built in Limon. Construction is scheduled to begin within the next two months and be completed 14 months later. Along the way, Lovelace N.A. will be rebuilding much of the industrial sections of the cities where its refineries are located.

Lovelace already has refineries slated for construction near Houma, La., and in Green County, Penn. Each of those plants will employ 4,800 people and produce 500,000 barrels of fuel per day.

The Costa Rican refineries will be different from any others ever built, though. The refineries will operate on the Gibbs theory of thermodynamics. They will be used to convert coal, waste rubber and certain biodegradables into auto, diesel and jet fuel. The plants will also produce methanol and elimination paraffin.

To do business in Costa Rica, Lovelace said it was necessary for his company to redo some of that country’s railroads. But the Cost Rican government decided it wanted Lovelace to renovate the nation’ s entire 4,000-mile railway system, converting it from antiquated narrow-gauge (four to six feet wide) tracks to standard-gauge (eight feet wide) tracks. Lovelace also plans to do tracks for a magnetic levitation train that has no wheels and can travel 240 miles per hour. Lovelace N.A. will operate Costa Rica’s national railway system under contract for the next 60 years.

Originally from Chicago, Lovelace said he plans to relocate his business to St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands.