TRANSCRIPTION OF FINANCE NEWS NETWORK INTERVIEW WITH INDIGO TECHNOLOGIES (SIM VSE) MANAGING DIRECTOR, GARY SHERLOCK
Clive Tompkins: Hello Clive Tompkins reporting for the Finance News Network. Joining me from Indigo Technologies the first listing on the SIM VSE is Managing Director, Gary Sherlock. Gary welcome to FNN, can you start by introducing Indigo Technologies?
Gary Sherlock: Yes thank you Clive. The Mission Statement of Indigo Technologies is to provide sustainable air pollution solutions for industrial processes. In practical terms that means we bring in technology which meets the challenges of emission outputs from industrial processes.
Clive Tompkins: So how long have you been going and who started the company?
Gary Sherlock: The company was founded a little over ten years ago as a research and development company by Mr. Rodney Truce. Rodney is the inventor of our technologies and today continues as an executive director of the company.
Clive Tompkins: Where are your key markets?
Gary Sherlock: The key markets are the major industrial power houses of the world. Firstly the USA, they have the largest power - sorry electrical energy producing capacity, followed by a very large cement industry and a very large steel manufacturing industry. China has recently overtaken Japan as the number two world energy producer and a rapidly developing industrial sector and of course, our own Australian domestic marketplace.
Clive Tompkins: Your key product is used to create larger more easily collected dust particles as part of the filtering process, where are these typically used?
Gary Sherlock: The Agglomerator is also known as the Fine Particle Control System. Its focus is on super fine and fine particles in gaseous emission streams. It’s a two process operation whereby the first part is to cause the fine particles to accumulate into larger particles, which are then captured by an electrostatic process which removes those larger particles from the gaseous stream and sends them off to the more traditional scrubber technology, employed by the industrial processes.The historic focus of the Agglomerator has been in the coal fired electricity power generation industry. That’s not to say that’s the only application – that certainly has been the historical focus. As we’ve continued to develop the product, we’re now looking at other industries such as steel, such as the cement industry and also a more recent opportunity arose looking at emissions flues from underground road tunnels.
Clive Tompkins: Gary so how many installs have been completed?
Gary Sherlock: Of the Fine Particle Control System there have been thirteen installs worldwide to date and that’s been a very successful product for us. We’ve - as I said earlier, continued to develop that product and we now have a second product which we brought to market, which is the Multiple Air Pollutant System. That system its primary focus is on SOx Sodium Oxide, NOx Nitrous Oxide, Hg Mercury as well as fine particle or opacity reduction. The focus of that to date has been in the cement industry where mercury emissions are a well known, well established challenge. And right now we in fact have an installation – a trial installation at a cement plant in Victoria, which is undergoing commissioning as we speak. And the focus of that plant is on the utilisation of alternative fuels. In this case bio-solids which are used as a replacement fuel for coal and also as a replacement raw material in the kiln feed. So with that comes an extra challenge of mercury emissions and as I say, our technology is being employed to meet that challenge.
Clive Tompkins: And what’s the driver behind purchases, is it legislation, cost savings or both?
Gary Sherlock: Historically I could say that legislation has been the focus of the company in taking our product to market. And most recently, in fact on the 10th of August this year, the US EPA have introduced very stringent new conditions on the US cement kiln industry and reduction of mercury levels is one of the key components of those new regulations.The other aspect to the application of the technology, particularly in power plants and cement plants has been to provide options or flexibility in terms of fuel use. What I mean by that is by removing a lot of the emissions from the coal burning process, our technology enables the industrial processes to utilise lower grades of coal, thereby reducing their operating costs. The second element is that it removes some of the abrasiveness in their processes, thereby reducing their maintenance costs and maintenance downtime.
Clive Tompkins: And where is the greatest uptake of the technology?
Gary Sherlock: Historically the USA has led the market globally by having the most stringent emission standards for industrial processes. And as I’ve said earlier, it is in the US that the majority of our Fine Particle Control Systems have been installed. However, during the last decade China has rapidly advanced in its industrial processes, particularly in the coal fired electricity generation industry and along with that, China has increased the stringency of their emission standards.
Clive Tompkins: Turning to your listing now, who has supported the company to this point?
Gary Sherlock: During its formative years the company was supported by a small number of long term private investors. More recently the company undertook a $2 million share placement supported by FEX and private investors introduced to us by FEX. Since then the company has listed on the SIM VSE Exchange and we are proud to be the first or initial listing on that exchange.
Clive Tompkins: And how much has been invested?
Gary Sherlock: There’s been $10 million invested since the creation of the company and as I said, recently $2 million has been supported - providing support of the company’s ongoing operations.
Clive Tompkins: Gary last question. Where do you see Indigo Technologies in the next twelve to eighteen months?
Gary Sherlock: Yeah the real focus for us is on substantiating the collaborations we have in China and really bringing home to fruition the opportunities that are presented to us in the US market, as a consequence of the ever tightening of regulations over there and as a consequence of these strategic relationships and partnerships that we’ve previously created in that market.
Clive Tompkins: Gary Sherlock thanks for introducing Indigo Technologies.
Gary Sherlock: Thank you very much Clive for the opportunity.
