Author: Luis Rodriguez Jr.

Assistant Professor of Law and Taxation, Alfred University, rodriguez@alfred.edu

Magnuss—Wind Propulsion for Maritime Shipping—Saving Fuel, Money and Emissions

The global shipping industry is practically invisible to most people. But in fact, it is a huge industry and one of the biggest emitters of Greenhouse Gases in the world. If it were a country, its CO2e emissions would rank #6.

Magnuss is preparing to slash those emissions and cut costs by applying tested and proved technology with some high-tech additions. Its secret? Rotating, retractable cylindrical sails on ocean-going vessels.  
 
The Magnuss VOSS (Vertically-variable Ocean Sail System) sails are not your ordinary “billowing sheets” sails. Arguably the most powerful sail ever conceived, the Magnuss VOSS is a 100-foot tall, spinning, hollow, metal cylinder that propels a ship, thereby enabling the ship’s main engine to be throttled back while maintaining voyage speed.
 
Magnuss delivers three benefits: (i) fuel savings of 20-35% on average and up to 50%, for an industry breaking its back to save 2-4%, (ii) a differentiated means to reduce carbon emissions in the face of tightening regulation, and (iii) a patented and class-approved design of proven technology applied in a different way to meet the needs of global shipping today.
 
It is important to note that fuel is costly and represents a high percentage (60-80%) of a bulk cargo ship’s operating costs, and, to repeat: the shipping industry ranks among the world’s largest producers of carbon emissions.
      
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Register at the GIF Eventbrite page: Greentech Investors Forum, May 12, 2017
Or contact Gelvin at gelvin.stevenson@gmail.com.
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Currently, Magnuss is looking to close a $2.7 million angel round of common equity shortly on the heels of strong interest.  Proceeds from the remainder of the raise are for ongoing engineering, ship integration classification, strategic partnerships, international patent expansion as well as ongoing company operations. 
 
The company is preparing to cut steel on a full scale, commercially-available product.  Importantly, the following boxes have been checked: proof of concept verified, patents issued, tech design complete, class approval obtained, market acceptance validated, first commercial unit positioned for fabrication and purchase order in hand.
 
Magnuss will use those funds to install two to five sails aboard the largest ships in the world, including dry bulk carriers and tankers. They expect the customers to recoup the cost in just 3-5 years.
 
These savings have been validated by independent 3rd party NGOs, including Sir Richard Branson’s Carbon War Room and the Sustainable Shipping Initiative.
 
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Disclaimer: The Greentech Investors Forum (GIF) is not soliciting funds for the presenting companies, nor is it encouraging parties to invest in them.  We try to find good companies — not necessarily good investments.  They have been advised on what is acceptable in terms of predicted results, but GIF takes no responsibility for what they actually do, say, or how they perform in the future.
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First developed by Anton Flettner in 1926, the application of this technology for shipping was shown to be highly effective. The standard Flettner rotor is a spinning, hollow, metal column installed on a ship’s deck that converts wind into forward thrust, roughly perpendicular to the direction of the wind, by the physical principle called the Magnus effect.
 
The Magnuss VOSS is a vastly improved version of the Flettner rotor design, serving today’s shipping industry with a number of patented innovations. The chief difference and advantage of the VOSS is that it can be retracted and stowed below deck, out of the way. The signature transformable configuration is important when loading/unloading in port and for reducing drag in unsuitable conditions.
 
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To register, visit Greentech Investors Forum, this Eventbrite site, or send your contact information to Gelvin Stevenson at gelvin.stevenson@gmail.com or 917-599-6089.  Please contact Gelvin If you have questions or need more information.

AU Drone Club Helps Careers Take Off

Saxon Fly (Alfred University’s Drone Club) consistently serves as a teaching vehicle to train its members in leadership, project management, and business/entrepreneurship skills by using drone technology for:

Importantly, the club also serves to help Alfred University students obtain internships to jump start their careers.  In his own words, Jason St. John, the club’s incoming President shares the following personal experience:

“This spring I accepted an internship at IGNITEU in Albany NY, where I will help their staff launch and run their accelerator program and other related activities.

I had my first interview with IGNITEU in early April 2017 over the phone.  In that initial interview I talked about some of my work experiences, and the student clubs that I am a part of on the AU campus. The drone club came up in conversation when they asked if I had any leadership or entrepreneurial experience. I talked about the struggles and successes we have had with the club over the past 2 years of getting it to where it is today. In this interview, we talked about the club for roughly 15 minutes of the 40-minute interview.

In my follow up video conference interview with them I was introduced to the boss I would be working for in the summer if I received the internship position. We got about 20 minutes into the interview when they brought up the drone club and wanted me to share more of my experiences with it.  This was a sigh of relief for me because I can talk about the drone club for hours.  The topic of the drone club ended up taking about 30 minutes of my entire interview. They were fascinated not only by the drones, but that we as college students are attempting to harness this technology and form a business out of it. They loved the entrepreneurial spirit that the drone club has given me and I believe the interview went great.”

Go Saxons!

Go Saxon Fly!

Alfred University Student VITA Volunteers: Tax Season 2017

Congratulations to those Alfred University students who collectively volunteered more than 100 hours of their time providing free federal and state income tax filing services to our neighbors in Allegany County and Steuben County as part of the Internal Revenue Service’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program (VITA).

Alfred University partners with the Allegany County United Way, and with Southern Tier CA$H of Steuben County to help qualifying taxpayers file their federal and state income tax returns for free – VITA is a vital economic service in our region.

MBA657 Guest Speaker: Mr. Peter White on Transfer Pricing

Mr. Peter White, Senior Tax Counsel at KODAK spoke to our MBA students during dinner at the Terra Cotta about International Taxation focusing on Transfer Pricing.

Peter has worked at KODAK for over twenty years, and brings a large range of practical corporate taxation and internal business experiences.

LAW241 Guest Speaker: Craig Gestring of the Department of Justice will Discuss Cyber Crimes

Mr. Craig Gestring is a career prosecutor. He has prosecuted criminal cases in State, Federal, and Military courts around the country. Gestring is an Assistant United States Attorney with the Criminal Division in the Western District of New York where he prosecutes a wide variety of federal crimes including environmental crimes, white collar crimes, frauds, threat cases, and gun crimes. Gestring’s cyber work includes prosecuting online crimes against children and coordinating cyber investigations involving BOTs, intrusions, and hacking.

Gestring is a combat veteran, having spent a long, hot, and dusty year doing Army stuff with an M-16 in the Al Anbar Province of Western Iraq.

Perryman Thermal Battery—with a Molten Nickle/Iron Core. Is this the Future of Thermal Storage?

Thermal Energy Storage gets no respect. At least not the respect it deserves. But thermal storage has been used for over a century and works extremely well. It has the lowest cost per kilowatt, the smallest volume per kilowatt—or, conversely, the highest energy density—of any energy storage technology.

Perryman Thermal Battery is poised to earn that respect, and today company representatives spoke to a room of potential investors, researchers, and other professionals about their technology and business potential.

Chemical Engineer Virgil Perryman has spent over six years developing and testing his technology. He has been granted two patents and applied for another one. The British Ministry of Defense tried considered his technology in its early years to be used by the British forces in Afghanistan, including a half scaled 13-ton unit that can powered command control for a forward base, a front line surgical unit and radar. They tested it for several years using heat generated by both solar thermal arrays as well as charging from AC or DC sources. The storage unit was then used to generate both heat and electricity as needed. Mr. Perryman originally build an 30 ton initial prototype in 2010 which stored up to 10 MW of thermal energy and subsequently improved the technology so the same containment could store 29.9 MW of thermal energy and could produce 10 MW hours of electricity and 18 MW hours of thermal energy, idea for situations where heat and power are needed. Currently, a European group (which cannot be named) is testing Perryman Thermal Batteries as back-up generators for wind and other intermittent energy generation sources. After 16 months of testing one system where energy must be stored for over 180 days, the units are preforming flawlessly.

The company plans to start installing its thermal batteries later this year. Mr. Perryman has developed one model about the size of a large home hot water unit; another is about half that size and is targeted for homes in the United Kingdom. The first commercial installation is set for a new green residential development England where construction is about to start.

It’s no surprise that the technology works; it is, after all, based on a technology that’s been around way longer than humans. The battery stores energy the same way the Earth stores energy—making it rather like your ultimate bio-mimicry technology. The earth has a molten metal core that’s over 10,800 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s about as hot as the sun! But the surface of the earth is about 60 degrees F. Why? Because of the multiple layers of refractory material between the core and the surface.

The company uses off-the-shelf magnetic induction to melt the nickel-iron core, which is surrounded by a special shield, which is surrounded by an alumina layer and layer of material very similar to the tiles used on the Space Shuttle tiles, a very efficient ceramic refractory which literally holds the heat in. Then there are more layers of ceramics of different density, all designed to trap the thermal energy, and finally a layer similar to the insulation you would find on your kitchen oven. The outside enclosure can be customized to various applications and for inside or outdoor use. Finally, the unit’s outside layer is warm to the touch (about 90 degrees F) but not hot; rather like the cooling fins on the back of a refrigerator. It is controlled by a touch pad with a remote-control option.

This is a proven technology, going back at least for 100 years. It has been used in the UK and throughout Europe. The Storage units can be safely transported by road, rail or sea, either un-charged or fully charged with 100 tons of molten steel and 29 MW of thermal energy.

It is a global battery, with the core from Austria, thermal transfer system from Germany, the controls from several suppliers including the USA, UK and Japan, and, finally, the closed loop steam generator from suppliers worldwide to allow local servicing and maintenance since it’s the only component with moving parts. While the supply chain may be complicated, the technology is simple.