600 Gallons!

600 Gallons!

After living together in a tent on the side of an airfield for a month we passed the 600 gallon milestone that triggers $1.6 million in funding and is a huge step in realizing Peter's dream of energizing rural communities around the world.

This is the first time a direct replica of diesel fuel has been made at this scale. We worked through 240 boxes of Costco soybean oil, managed to run the reactor on its own byproducts the entire time and produced enough fuel to run my trucks for a year. We spent $20,000 in food, additional laborers, 3rd party testing and on-the-fly fixes--including $4800 in an emergency workers comp binding that shut us down for nearly a week.

This realizes a dream of Peter's 10 years in the making. And Wendy and my baby (9 months in the making) thankfully missed this event but will hopefully (as many of your emails inspired us on) inherit a slightly different world for it.

And here's my Oscar paragraph: I want to thank Paulo for his vision, our investors for their taking a big leap, and Ben for his round-the-clock smarts. Team Jose and Jaime (and his Lupe for cooking) are proof not only that California's economy is based on their contributions but that it's green economy is not so green (green jobs that appear as black tar). Jason kept us going in memos, visions of Faragamo shoes and hot assistants during lunch time feasts. Gabe and Dre for for utterly useless brawn and engineering and beer.

It's amazing that Peter and I have been working together for 2 years, lived together two summers, and out of tent for the last month and haven't killed one another. He's put up with my whiny outbreaks, lame doubting, and stupid mistakes. He's maintained a cool head, his bedside is covered with post-it notes for 2.0 and he's managed an incredibly complex and dangerous operation without ego.

Finally (tears, pump Oscar statue) to Wendy for holding it out, putting up with a husband that smells of hydrocarbons and setting aside her dream of what our last month of parental bachelorhood would look like.

Man-tractions

Wendy told me she thinks i am having man-tractions. If so, they are 4.2 gallons - one hour apart. We are down to the last 50 gallons. Full moon and both the reactor and my wife are in deep dives. Then surface. Then plunge.

I'm exhausted and this kid hasn't even arrived yet. I left the house at 3AM and as soon as I arrived the reactor went blitz. We have taken it apart and put it back together. Trying to get it running again. This is great training for fatherhood. I'm having my own burning man. lighting shit on fire on the endge of an airstrip, living out of tents, driving equipment, using bikes to get to and from the hanger.

I left the hangar for a few hours to get some pics of Wendy and me to celebrate how beautiful she is. This is our wedding site (see pic from 3 years ago) and a rather haunting photo of Arabie inside her many months ago (who looks likes she may have gotten a hit off of some of the awesome fumes of the reactor)

Steve Jurvetson and Pablo Picasso

5:30 AM Moonset over the airfield---

We just passed 450 gallons--about 75% done. I am starting to think about what's next; after we finish this testing. I look back at where we started: here's a photo of Pablo Picasso and the heater for his atelier which bears an uncanny resemblance to our reactor, followed by a photo of "1.0". It seemed so simple then.

We keep this photo up inside the hangar.

To this, we have added 28 different levers, 14 sensors, argon gas, a flare and secondary burner, pre-heat tanks and a 3-stage evacuation chamber to dispell the waste contents on the fly at 700 degrees. It's insane.

I think back to when we presented to Steve Jurvetson and our powerpoint on operating the thing was one powerpoint slide. And the next slide was our seamless roll out of 100 reactors at a time for 200,000 deployments producing fuel that inspired us to use the "b" and "t" denominations.

What lurked inbetween of course were days and nights covered in our black tar byproduct, wrenches too slippery to hold, a tent city errected to eat and cook in while we ran 24 hours (fending off rats eating our staples) and required safety courses for operating forklifts.

But the moon is up, and I miss Steve and this happy day Peter and I went down to see one of the greatest minds of the Valley.

But today's work is about producing fuel: when i arrive, there are empty buckets; when i leave, there are full buckets. I don't question what we did that day, or need to ask if I was productive. I can't question what the bigger picture is because it's too daunting. Powerpoint makes it seem all so simple. But for now, we have a goal: 600 gallons.

Half way

300 Gallons - half way

We passed the half way point after a challenging week. Another 300 gallons to go. Racing against the clock with Wendy's belly: last check up says we have an 8 pounder on the way. a few calls with "am I in early labor?"; our company investor says "whenever the baby arrives we count the gallons: that's it". this might be one expensive child.

Silicon Valley meets Renewable Fuels

20%!

A few minutes ago we passed the 20% marker of our production goal of 600 gallons of renewable diesel. If I haven't explained it yet, "renewable diesel" is the next generation of diesel fuel: it's identical in its chemical properties to diesel fuel but comes from renewable sources, such as vegetable oils or fats, oils and greases. This is different from biodiesel which is a methyl-ester--a fuel that resembles the performance characteristics of diesel but its not compatible with pipelines, cars and trucks. We are producing a hydrocarbon that is a direct diesel fuel replacement.

Last night was our 4th night of continuous production. Ben, Peter and I each take a shift with a back up from Equipo Mexicano: Jose and Jaime. We've also enjoyed the support of friends like Papa Rosen who bring beer and pizza and Jason Burnett who come in their Faconable shirts and "write memos".

We are set up at the old Fritzche Airfield in Marina, CA on the edge of the old Fort Ord military base just north of my hometown. We are surrounded by sand dunes (where I have been driving out to sleep whenever i can). On the east end of the runway starts the glorious Salinas Valley.

Day Two
After several on-the-fly major changes to the reactor column we resumed full run tonight at about 9PM. Once again Peter and Ben carried the heavy load. I left at 7AM and drove home via the Marriot where I dropped off company sweatshirts to our investors. I fell asleep at the wheel and heard a massive horn cry--turned out to be directed at another driver but it was the scare I needed. When I am done with this shift, and if I'm tired, I'll just drive my truck back into the dunes (as I did the other day when I crashed out for a good hour on a futon in the back of my truck).

Jaime is working the graveyard with me tonight. He works for my Dad normally. He's eager to help and reminds me much of his kind country, Guatemala.

The moon is up. It's not cold out--even maybe warm. Last night it was freezing rain so it's pleasant but I already know it's going to be a long night. I got about 4.5 hours of sleep in the last 36 hours.