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Monday, February 25, 2008

Equity Capital Symposium Returns to Bring Investors, Innovators Together

By Andrew Webb
Copyright © 2008 Albuquerque Journal; Journal Staff Writer
    Still waiting around for Mr. Fusion? Well, it's not mounted on the back of a Delorean, and it won't turn your old orange peels into electricity, but Hyperion Power Generation's hot tub-sized nuclear reactor may bring personal power generation closer to reality.
    The Santa Fe startup, which is seeking to commercialize self-contained reactor technology developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, is one of 18 companies set to make their pitches to investors during this year's Technology Ventures Corp. Equity Capital Symposium.
    "This is not your typical nuclear reactor," HPG vice president of licensing Deborah Blackwell says. "There are no moving parts and no cooling towers."
    Instead, HPG's power generator is completely self-contained, and when buried in the ground and hooked to a generator, such as a steam turbine, could remotely power up to 20,000 homes.
    The company envisions the factory-built devices, which use a fist-sized unit of powdered, non-weapons-grade uranium hydride to generate heat, as a "super battery" for military installations, remote villages or "off-the-grid" communities seeking reliable power.
    "It blows a hole in everybody's concept of nuclear power to date in that we're talking about something that's completely transportable," Blackwell says. "You can put it on a flatbed, take it to where it needs to be, dig a hole in the ground and connect it up. We're taking confined nuclear power to the masses— that's never been done before."
    The symposium, now in its 15th year, is the flagship event for TVC, which is funded by the Department of Energy and Sandia National Laboratories operator Lockheed Martin to encourage commercialization of lab-developed technology. Each year it attracts more than 100 venture capitalists and private, or "angel" investors.
    According to TVC, it has helped secure $913 million in funding for more than 90 companies.
    This year's symposium runs May 14-15 at Albuquerque's Embassy Suites Hotel.
    TVC president and CEO Sherman McCorkle credited that to increased deal flow in alternative energy, driven by mandates in the 2005 and 2007 Energy Bills.
    "In the public stock market, we've seen money flow to alternative energy companies, and we're seeing the same thing in the private equity market," McCorkle said.
    The other 2008 presenters run the gamut from water purification to wireless communications to low-cost home building.
   
10 minutes to fame
    TVC selected the presenters from a pool of 59 applicants and will work with each company until the symposium to hone business plans and package funding proposals. Each presenter will have 10 minutes on stage to promote their companies.
    The 2008 Equity Capital Symposium presenters include:
   

Concho LLC— an Albuquerque spinoff of engineering firm Applied Research Associates that plans to convert crop oils into jet fuel as part of a military mandate to find alternatives to petroleum fuels. Concho's high-temperature, high-pressure technology converts such oils with more than 90 percent energy and mass efficiency, says Chief Operating Officer Lynda Liptak.
    The company plans to start with soybean oil, then eventually explore other sources, such as algae.
    "Ultimately, our feedstock will be one that doesn't impact the food chain and the price of crops," Liptak said.
   

HPG Inc., which is developing the small, self-contained nuclear reactor.
   

eQsolaris Inc.— a Los Alamos company developing solar power generation modules that could cost a quarter of existing photovoltaic systems. eQsolaris is using electronically controlled optics to focus intense energy on droplet-sized photovoltaic cells.
    Inventor Robert Hockaday says the company will first focus on architectural skylights containing arrays of the cells that could charge small batteries or other products.
    "If we can enable people to say 'I want to put a solar cell anywhere I want,' suddenly, this is a very enabling technology," Hockaday said.
   

Therma Sun— a Santa Fe company developing solar thermal systems used for domestic hot water and heating. According to the company, solar thermal is a cheaper alternative to reaping the sun's energy than photovoltaic.
   

Arrakis Corp.— a Santa Fe company developing devices that clean brackish "produced" water that is a byproduct of oil and gas drilling, using waste heat or other renewable energy.
   

Enerpulse Inc.— an Albuquerque developer of high-power automotive spark plugs, which the company says increase power and fuel efficiency. This is Enerpulse's third visit to the TVC symposium. Its first two presentations did ultimately result in investments. After several years growing aftermarket sales, the company seeks new investment to use to approach automakers themselves.
   

Green Polymer Technologies— an Albuquerque company that allows plastics manufacturers to use mixed plastic scrap without expensive hand sorting and processing.
   

Por Fin, Nuestra Casa— a Corrales company that aims to use low-cost recycled materials and surplus shipping containers to build low-cost housing.
   

Global Haptics— an Albuquerque company developing the GeOrb, a handheld peripheral for three-dimensional computer gaming and modeling programs.
   

Knowledge Reef— a Santa Fe company developing a Web-based system for distribution of information between members of "knowledge" communities.
   

MKey Technologies— a Las Cruces firm developing so-called "keylogging" technology, which can be used to record keyboard data in high-security environments, such as banks, to detect employee fraud.
   

Quid Interactive Inc.— an Albuquerque company developing pre-programmed architecture for instruction programs. The software allows users to drag and drop content, including audio, video and text, into a multimedia system rooted in adult learning theory.
   

Cogent Wireless Solutions— a Milpitas, Calif. company developing home and auto cellular coverage extenders.
   

Perma Tools— an Albuquerque company seeking to commercialize oil and gas well monitoring technologies developed at Sandia National Laboratories.
   

TransEL Corp.— an Albuquerque firm developing computer memory products that are less costly and use less energy than existing technologies for aerospace, defense, industrial and telecommunications applications.
   

Bio-Detector LLC— an Albuquerque company developing highly sensitive devices that rapidly detect food-borne micro-organisms, such as E. coli, during processing and at distribution points.
   

EM Optomechanical— an Albuquerque company developing measurement, or metrology, equipment for the micro-electro mechanical system, or MEMS, industry.
   

Incitor— an Albuquerque company developing ethanol fuel for less than $1 per gallon using cellulose from waste, wood and nonfood plants.