When a new venture capital firm appears, and begins claiming golden opportunities in sustainable technology, most investors and media watchers tend to look for reasons to be skeptical. The ‘clean-tech’ industry, some observe, already has the makings of a bubble, and without a doubt, many new efforts will be tested in the coming years as the marketplace, and the benchmarks of true sustainability, sort out the practical solutions from the more fanciful ones.
Mantra Venture Group seems to have grasped this concept early, and one of its criteria that can make a technology attractive is the potential for ‘closed-loop’ operation. “Closed-loop” or closed-containment essentially describes a system that recycles its waste into an energy source, either for internal use or to be harvested as a useful by-product. Similarly, projects that utilize an existing waste stream, and convert them into a fuel or energy sources, are highly valuable from both economical and ecological perspectives.
Mantra Venture Group is comprised of a cluster of subsidiary companies: Mantra Energy Alternatives, Mantra Wind Inc, Carbon Commodity Corp, Climate Esco Ltd, and Mantra Media Corporation. The original parent company was incorporated in Nevada in early 2007. Its home base of operations is now shared between two offices, in Seattle, WA and Vancouver, BC.
Recently the company held its first ‘open house’ event in Vancouver, inviting new and prospective investors to become acquainted with Mantra’s key objectives, its partnerships, and to learn about the technologies and projects currently under development. The evening’s first speaker was Colin Oloman, an electro-chemical engineer and professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia, and an electro-chemical engineer for over 40 years. At UBC’s Clean Energy Research Centre, Oloman and his research assistant have engineered a process, dubbed the Electro-chemical Reduction of Carbon, that essentially electrolyses carbon dioxide gas, converting it into a formic acid. This chemical can then be used in industrial applications, or potentially in fuel cells. Though still in the early development stages, Mantra’s vice president of technology evaluation, John Russell, is sufficiently convinced of the technology’s potential that Mantra purchased the license to it from Professor Oloman, and are now pursuing its US patent rights. “The ERC process is a significant shift from the idea of CCS (carbon capture and storage), which instead of trying to bury CO2, actually harnesses its useful properties,” says Mr. Russell. The company has acquired its own research facility in which to further research & development on this potentially important carbon-management technology. A recent research paper exploring the ERC process was recently published in Europe’s ChemSusChem industry journal. Excitement about its prospective uses is already building across the Atlantic, where carbon management, pricing, and clean tech in general is in a more advanced stage of acceptance than North America.
Next to take the microphone was Fred Enga, President of Northwind Ethanol, also based in Vancouver BC. A thermo-dynamics engineer by trade, Mr Enga heads up Northwind, which is working on a process to convert BC wood waste into cellulosic ethanol. Their proprietary process focuses on the break-down of raw starches into simple sugars using a low-heat process. This is more cost-effective than distillation, which is the most popular method of producing ethanol, and hasn’t changed “since the time of Judith the Jewess”, said Enga. Northwind’s Chief Financial Officer, Brian Currie, claimed the company could achieve 60% returns on investment in less than a year. Their approach is to obtain mothballed BC pulp mills and saw mills, of which there are a rapidly growing number, at deeply discounted prices, converting them into ethanol production plants. Biomass electricity can also be generated from the same facilities. Two sites are under negotiation, in Prince Rupert on the north coast, and another plant in Kelowna. The fuel source, wood waste, is also cheap, and many of the required workers live in the surrounding communities and are already familiar with the plants basic operating requirements. “Save is a strong word, but I truly believe with this process we can help save BC forestry communities,” said Currie. The projected ROI numbers do not take into account other opportunities such as licensing the plants, and carbon credit trading. But it does consider the US ethanol market, which is expected to demand around three billion gallons over the next several years, ideally from sources that do not compete with valuable food crops.
Two more partner companies presented during the evening, HTec and Windcor. Opportunities in hydrogen and wind power, respectively, are both of interest to Mantra’s overall business direction. Both HTec and Windcor are young companies with active projects and growing portfolios, and both are in early stage relationships with Mantra Energy. Other projects underway include a signal smoothing technology, being developed at the University of Toronto, which works to improve the quality of electricity from intermittent renewable energy sources. As well, advancements in water recycling and rehabilitation systems are being investigated.
With this much on their plate, the Mantra Venture Group doesn’t have time to procrastinate. “We are working to help solve big problems that aren’t waiting for us to catch up,” said Mr. Kristof. “This is about far more than the opportunity to earn good returns developing solutions. Climate change is something that is increasing rapidly and will affect everyone. Mantra is committed to bringing technologies into the marketplace that will make a difference just as rapidly.”
www.MantraEnergy.com Trading on the OTC-BB under the symbol MVTG
