http://baytownsun.com/story.lasso?ewcd=945d51046bc270a5 Baytown plant to produce alternative fuels By Tara Sullivan The Baytown Sun Published June 20, 2008 From green to black gold, John Rivera said his efforts are an answer to pleas from a nation suffering an average of $4 per gallon of gasoline at the pump. Those pleas are heard in silence as bicyclists ride the streets and workers stroll, lunch sacks in hand. Along Decker Drive, a storage center hoists a sign asking for one solution to lower gas prices: drill for oil here at home. Manager JoAnn Hicks of Baytown Self-Storage said oil prices are “crazy” so her storage company has been collecting signatures since Monday as part of Newt Gingrich’s national campaign called “American Solutions” which seeks to solve the gas problem. “Alternative fuel is going to have to be the way of the future,” she said. “We wanted to do our part right now, so we put it up on the sign. We’ve had a few people come in just for the purpose of singing the petition.” On the other side of town, Rivera and his team said that “future” solution has arrived in the form of a company called Green Energy Baytown. He said Baytonians would even be able to fuel their own vehicles with low-priced gasoline made from soybeans in 90 days. Known by friends as “The Rhino” because of his refusal to give up (Rhinos can’t walk backward), Rivera became interested in biofuel after investing in a Mississippi process that didn’t work. “Someone got me to invest in a $500,000 process that didn’t work and it intrigued me,” he said. “I’m one of those crazy people who has never lost in his life and I decided I wasn’t going to stop there.” With a background in power and co-generation (a process which aims to get more from the fuel consumed), Rivera began “tinkering.” The process he developed mimics the way nature makes oil. It heats, cools, compresses and condenses compost until there are two products left: crude oil and carbon. The difference is it takes millions of years in nature, but only hours with Rivera’s process. The carbon material is actually a fertilizer, which can be sold back to the farmers he took the soybeans from in the first place, so Rivera’s process doesn’t create waste. Employee Tommy Minton, who followed Rivera from Mississippi, refers to the process as “cooking.” He explained that while the onsite produced gas he pours in four-wheelers and lawn mowers on site has been made from soybeans, they could actually use a variety of agricultural waste with a little “tweaking of the recipe.” “Someone brought horse hay from Florida and we got a little bit of oil from it - just from regular old horse hay,” said Minton. “Some things work better than others, but the bottom line is it does work.” Minton explained that organic matter is the basis of and crude oil is the basis for all fuels and petrol-products, so long as the correct recipe is used. The recipes he and his co-workers have perfected make different products from different beginnings, but all of them produce oil. Using those recipes, Rivera is making what he calls “vertroleum,” a product that is identical to crude oil used by oil giants like Exxon Mobil. When confronted with speculation, Rivera is quick to pull out AmSpec inspection papers. The company is U.S. Customs-approved to gauge petroleum products and Green Energy Baytown got their stamp of approval last week. “We believe that Sustainable Power bio crude when refined can produce “green” components which can be blended into marketable gasoline,” the inspection reads. AmSpec has also approved the refined biofuel (for cars) and bio jet fuel products produced from Green Energy’s crude product. A framed a photo of an employee wearing an “I’m a believer” T-shirt is kept in the work trailer at Green Energy. The man in the photo said he was skeptical at first, but has since joined the “Liar’s Club,” a group of people who once called Rivera a liar but have since “eaten their words.” Rivera chuckled at the photo and sat back. “This is for my great, great grandchildren,” he said, his wife Alice smiling beside him. “So they can breath clean air.” So, we know the answer to “why now,” but how about, “why Baytown?” Rivera said he came here by “happy accident.” He fell in love with the area when he was dealing in the failed Mississippi venture. “I thought, ‘these people love energy,’” he said. “The community has totally embraced us and we want to make sure we take care of Baytown.” That care will come in two forms: jobs and gas savings. Rivera said the latter would be had in 90 days, passing savings of $1 per gallon down the chain. Though his company will not be in the business of distributing fuel direct, Rivera is planning to sell the fuel to a local gas station. That location has yet to be revealed. “When I say $1 a gallon, I mean $1 the consumer can save,” he said. “On a 30-gallon tank that’s saving you $30 each time you fill up.” Tucked away behind Consort Concrete, between the Pinehurst and Devinwood subdivisions, are rows of barrels of crude oil and several busy bulldozers. The dozers are making room for a 500-megawatt facility (which is enough power for 400,000 average homes), which will sit upon Green Energy’s 200 acres of land. A small test-facility is already in place, producing some amount of crude oil. Rivera said the larger plant will be completed in 8 to 16 months, though four reactors will be up and running in 60 days. He expects those four alone to produce 24,000 gallons of oil a day. It will be from those four reactors that Rivera will begin selling his product to consumers. When the entire facility is complete, that number should grow to 3 million gallons per day. Rivera said he would need 2,000 employees for that plant, bringing more jobs to Baytown. Already, Rivera has received support from various nations, including Guatemala and Spain. He said there has been no response yet from the White House. “If the politicians really care about the energy crisis, come to Baytown, Texas and either endorse me or put me in jail,” he said. With or without domestic support, Rivera plans to use his process in virtually every arena that takes oil. Already in place on the 200 acres where the Green Energy plant will stand are energy hook-ups, which he plans to use to run power to homes and businesses. He said while the gasoline will roll out first, the energy and other petrol-products are soon to follow. For more information, visit http://gec.sstp.us/ or www.sustainablepower.com. Real or fake? Seems too easy me
