Leonard Susskind

I'm afraid I'm not much in the mind for recounting my past. However, I have missed a day and I promised myself I would continue this without fail until it was completed. I never mentioned I had to write entirely about my past. So, I will write for a short spell about the present and the reason behind my missing of a day amongst other trivial things.

Lets fast forward to a little over a year ago. I am trained as a plumber/gasfitter/HVAC technician and I'll get into the story of how I fell back into that later. I have been working now for the same plumbing and HVAC company for almost 6 years. Prior to this my track record was 3. My boss; Scott, treats everyone rather well. He's the only employer that allows me to work and still pursue my goal of becoming an accomplished inventor, which will allow me to acquire what should still be our family. Our cabin at the lake. In order to do that, I need resources, and a lot of them.

The means of reaching my goal is far from unattainable. I need a partly lucky and mostly educated break (true for anyone really). I have been working on a few projects that may start to open a few doors for me. That is to say, more doors than what have already been opened as a result of my ventures. One such project has the most amount of chance for success, is the CCS (carbon capture and storage) technology I have been working on with two other partners in the industry. Kathi F of Specified Technical Sales and Scott F; the owner of the company for which I am employed. It all sounds quite complicated. In fact, I have no doubt many are thinking how could a simple plumber solve a complex issue like CCS (carbon sequestering). Enter Leonard Susskind. He's one of the leading astrophysicists in the world and also a former plumber (the other would be Stephen Hawking; never a plumber). Now, I am by no means claiming to be on the same field as Dr Susskind, nor am I saying that I can solve all of the issues associated with CCS. I am saying that one should never judge a book by it's cover. I'm not your average plumber either.

“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.” Albert Einstein

Our carbon capture outline runs something like this; one home produces 1-2 tons of CO2 per year. This number is based on an average home in Canada being of about 1200 to 1400 square feet in size, and running with high efficiency appliances (furnace, domestic hot water tank. etc). High efficiency appliances are now a requirement in all new installs, thanks to the Canadian governments clean energy act it implemented last year. So, each home, produces on average 1-2 tons of greenhouse gas from these appliances. The city of Calgary, has about 230,000 to 240,000 detached single family units all of which rely on these appliances, they may not all be high efficiency, but they will be. Nothing lasts forever, your furnace is not exempt.You may note that this is just single family units, I'm am not including non-detached units. So if we split it down the middle for simplicity sake (It's not simple I know, but I don't want to type all day), we'll give a round conservative number of  352,500 tons of GHG (green house gas) for a portion of the greenhouse gas emissions from the city of Calgary. Don't be lead to the conclusion that just because you bought a new high efficiency furnace that you no longer produce CO2. If you burn any kind of fossil fuel, it's kind of hard not to. (I've heard that one quite a lot surprisingly). So, take that number and multiply it by the number of cities that have a population greater than 1 million. Lets say that number is 10. Yes I know there's more, but for this discussion, lets talk in round numbers. 352,500 by 10 equals 3,525,000 tons of green house gas emissions. I will also acknowledge that this number is small in comparison to the total output from say the oilsands or from most large scale industrial processes. This doesn't mean that it should be ignored either. We are using available technologies currently used in large scale industrial applications, without the harsh chemicals (amines, etc). The numbers are promising (and no, it does not involve algae, odd that I have been asked that). It sounds dry, but that's due to the fact I have left most of the detail out. Detail that will give us an edge. Detail that I will not share.

Our project has been going down this road for some time, with no signs of stopping. I have even stopped by a Dragons Den audition to ask a few questions to see if it might be something they would be interested in. Those are some nice people. Up front and seemingly honest. I recognize that the show is about business and it needs to be flashy for it to work on TV. I am not under any illusions I assure you.

I have had involvement from the National Research Council of Canada. They have given it the thumbs up. We were actually on the verge of receiving some much needed funding, but burning hoops to jump through were a bit much and we declined to proceed. I should have seen that coming, it is after all the government. Not to knock the good people at the NRC. They do their jobs well.

I won't get into much more detail than that. The proprietary content will have to wait.

The reason for yesterdays lull, was due to another project I had been working on since last August. I discovered that a plastic fitting company was in search of a means to transition from metal to plastic pipe. While there were a few options available, none could perform within the required parameters of a commercial application. I immediately took to pen. I jotted down a few designs, drafted it up in AutoCadd, and made a few production models. I then tested them for their tolerances and found that the couplings I created worked wonderfully. I then downloaded the 436 page Method of Patent Office Publishing from the Canadian Intellectual Patent Office as well as some prior art (already existing inventions) Studied till my eyes felt like they were going to fall from their sockets, and submitted the patent documents to both CIPO as well as USPTO. After which I contacted the research and development department of IPEX Canada and began the long and exhausting process of interacting with another company to try and secure a licensing agreement. It was going so well. They had months and months to say no. The longer it took, I thought, meant the more likely I was going to secure some sort of an agreement. This was not the case.

I received a very informative and professionally put together email indicating that IPEX was not going to pursue any possible business arrangement with our company. Now, I realize full well that this is just one company out of quite a few, and I by no means plan on ending it here. But it still takes the wind out of your sails when you hear the end and it's not what you expected. Ah well. I learned a great deal, and I guess that is better than any deal I could have had (at least I will keep telling myself that).

That's it. No more. No less. Tomorrow its back to the past. See you there.

In saecula saeculorum.