Build a better termite, Daman Walia says, and the world will beat a path to your door.
Gesturing toward two brightly painted shipping containers filled with a mass of tanks, pumps, valves, piping and gages, Walia said, "This is really what I call a big termite."
And it turns out that when hungry termites eat coal, their digestive microbes make two very useful products: methane gas and humic acid, a key constituent of rich soil.
"We tricked them into eating coal," the India-born entrepreneur said. "You could see their bodies turning brownish black."
Using the termites' microbes, scientists and engineers with Walia's company, Arctech Inc., have come up with a way to treat coal to make natural gas, clean water and increase agricultural yields, all without producing hazardous waste.
"My goal is to make energy, food and water at such a low cost that it's available for everyone," said Walia, who has a doctorate in mineral science. "It's doable. It's within our reach."
Process Engineering Inc. in Chesterfield built Arctech's portable gas-production system, which is destined for a half-ton-batch demonstration project in Turkey's coalfields.
"We've run the thing," said Joe Girone, Process Engineering's president, "and generated methane gas at the other end."
"I can compete with oil [at a price] down to $5 a barrel or even less," Walia said, producing 2,000-10,000 cubic feet of clean-burning natural gas from a ton of coal.
And, said Girone, who has worked with Arctech to fabricate its prototype systems for nearly 15 years, "there's no waste byproduct."
Arctech has learned to manipulate the humic molecule in a number of different ways, Walia said.
The Chantilly-based research and manufacturing company makes agricultural fertilizer and environmental remediation products from the process's residual humic acid, which is soil's active organic ingredient.
For instance, the company's humic acid-based Actodemil can be used to recycle the nitrogen in munitions into fertilizers, Arctech said.
Improving crops' growth would also help remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, reducing the greenhouse effect on climate.
But, Walia said, the biggest market is for water treatment.
Arctech's Humasorb-CS can remove contaminants from water for as little as half the cost of conventional approaches, according to the firm.
"I've taken coal's negatives," Walia said, "and turned them into positives."
He's looking for a strategic partner, he said. "We need to drive the solution into the marketplace."
Contact Peter Bacqué at (804) 649-6813 or pbacque@timesdispatch.com.
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