PDI, DuPont Deal Drives Diesel Dynamics (First Person)

Michael Ackerson

President, Process Dynamics Inc.

Fayetteville

I was looking for ways to make food grade wax coatings and realized the process could be used to remove impurities from other things. We’d been playing with the technology since 1997, but didn’t start pushing it until about 2000. 

In 2001, the EPA mandated that sulfur in diesel fuel for on-highway burning engines be reduced from 500 parts per million to 15 ppm. Our process, which we now call IsoTherming, was adaptable, so we focused on the petrochemical market.

IsoTherming can save a refinery about 50 percent on its capital costs to meet the EPA standards, which can equate to hundreds of millions of dollars.

The typical process uses brute force to deliver hydrogen to the mix of fuel; we sort of finesse it. Too, there’s a savings in the reduction of heat. In the old method, there’s a temperature rise of up to 150 degrees Fahrenheit throughout the process – with our way it’s only about 15 degrees. 

We sold the technology to DuPont Corp. in August. We retained the right to refine the technology and investigate uses for it on alternative fuels, which may be a big market some day.

We had seven clients and were working on two more before the DuPont deal, so they inherited that business. I sleep a lot better because it would’ve been very difficult for our seven-person staff to service those clients had there ever been a major mishap. Fortunately there never was. 

I was recently in China where I presented to two companies on behalf of DuPont. Worldwide, a lot of new mandates are being put in place over the next three to five years, so there’s a lot of potential for our technology to help refineries meet those standards.

Process Dynamics has about 30 investors. I never went after SBIR grants. My main goal was always to commercialize our technology. It is extremely difficult to do that.