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D1 is from the UK.
http://www.d1plc.com/
They were the first public biodiesel company to my knowledge.
I never visited the site, saw pictures. Allen inherited it, brought me in. I remember a rail line running outside, no switch, no loading, etc. nothing inside, at least from the pics I saw. They had feedstock and biodiesel coming/going by truck in the plan. Getting the neighbors onboard was seen as a hurdle too.
It's not completed, just a pile of parts still. I had it scheduled to be running on my birthday June, 2007 I remember. Invited Willie to come by and see it run as he was in cape cod. Then the money stopped coming and it got pulled from production, never finished it. I wasn't going to start again until they were paid up, they never got there. It also changed scope, added container, glycerol gasification, automation, etc and we never nailed down what the final price would be, Aziz always wanted it for free. It's programmable to run at 2 MGPY and I decided to program the PLC not to exceed that. I told them it wouldn't run past that until they agreed to a price to make it do more. I estimate it can do 6M GPY when done. A few months ago I agreed to complete it for 25k, plus balance after it was burned in. They were that close. When it didn't show as promised I just wanted to be done with them, Allen had moved on. I'd rather not say what the price was, it was too cheap. It was a "what can you build for this" kind of negotiation. I took the deal knowing I could throw an ebay style cheap processor at it and stay within budget, then tried to give them all I could for the money we had to work with. My main interest was in selling more. I also take R&D deals cheap to expand our product line. I ended up designing a very robust system and went over budget on my nickel. The container, glycerol gasification, and dry wash polishing were added which greatly reduce the operating cost. The hardware cost me at least as much as they were paying me. The labor, engineering, design, overhead etc were not covered. I hoped to recoup that by making it a 6M GPY down the road and getting the upgrade dough. We planned on going to market after that at .30/gal or 1.8 Million.
Our motto is "we're better than the other guys because we've made more mistakes than they have". It's been a learning curve no doubt. Nobody said I was nuts when I started; I had ten plus years experience in petroleum equipment and a wall full of awards. The free market requires you know what you're doing, you have to be good or better than the next guy. That takes smarts gained from experience. People that jump in to areas they don't belong are soon educated. I applaud them for their courage. I'd rather they do it on their nickel instead of mine tough.
I wanted to post the truth long ago but was in the middle of the deal and knew it would torpedo our hopes of working things out, decided not to. The PR set me free.
I know. I agree, it's feasible to build a plantation with no money, JV with the plantation owner, blow smoke up his butt, I'll make you rich, plant these seeds, etc. I believe he can do that. It takes years for jatropha to produce 100% though, 3-5 depending on species. His earnings forecasts don't seem to account for that.
D1 Oils from the UK did the same thing in Africa with Jatropha, started 6 years ago. I recently heard they are going under. They had half a dozen PHD's on their board and a pile of money. Do I think Aziz is smart enough to pull it off. Maybe, he's dumb enough to try and that's step one. GLTU
JG
I am not anonymous and Aziz will be picking this apart to find a lie. Why would I risk a guaranteed slander indictment and lie? I am not anonymous and have much to lose, think about it.
It started in NH. I explained what was needed to make it work, class 1 area division/partitions, etc. They had no loading area for trucks, wanted to run a hose out to the parking lot, wouldn't likely fly without containing the loading area, they pulled out from the facility as it became clear it was not a good site. Then they had a site picked out which I designed around which didn't happen as they couldn't get the dough. Then they wanted it installed in shipping container and were going to run it in a parking lot with tanker trucks down on Cape Cod. It was a portable model, very cheap, very clever. Allen was trying to get it running without enough money to do it any other way.
I don't know much about the plantations. I would guess that everyone doing business with him won't be eventually (IMO). I don't see any lasting relationships in this guys history which coincides with my experience. He could afford a bag of seeds and could promise to buy the feedstock. I have been offered "free" land myself in Guyana, 600,000 hectares, 99 yr 1 dollar lease in return for employing the locals. It's possible to build a "plantation" pretty cheap. If he doesn't call them after happy hour and ask them to throw in their souls on the deal he could pull it off. Kind of like believing in Jack and Beanstalk though.
I usually get half down and half on delivery, they couldn't afford that. They split it up in weekly payments. They gave me chunks and promises. When I say they didn't pay I mean they missed their subsequent promised payments. They'd catch up and do a new timeline, miss those payments, repeat. They had one more payment before the ball was in my court to deliver it and receive the final payment. It was never made, promised lots of times, never showed. During this time the location, feedstock, supporting infrastructure and everything else were moving targets as well. It was almost comical.
When Allen was on board it was worth pumping. Had he been given the funding he would of hit the ball out of the park. Jim wasn't wrong to change his mind when Allen left.
Skepticism is not ill placed here. To give these guys the benefit of the doubt is generous considering their history IMO. If they put out a PR that they obtained financing, then expect something real. Till then it's hopes and dreams.
I was talking about pinky's in general. It's very rare to find a truly legit one IMO. Aziz at least tried. My agenda is the truth, that's all.
sure thing, call me this weekend if you want, my 9-5 is hectic
Processing costs me 8 cents to build (low FFA), sells for .30 on the low end with greenline type systems to 1.00 with Lurgi / Fagen approach. Tank farm, land, rail, loading, permits, etc can vary greatly and are dependent on your logistics, feedstock supply, etc. It's possible to have trucks loading and unloading to avoid having a tank farm /expense. This saves money out of the gate but cost more in the long run. If you want a months supply of feedstock and biodiesel on a 100M GPY plant you're looking at a mammoth tank farm and 10's of millions in expense. You're estimates are in line with industry averages.
From my experience you go public when conventional financing says no. When conventional lenders say no it's for good reason. To raise money here you have to talk big, hope the dough shows so you can deliver, and it's rarely ever enough. The "cost" of money here is too high to ever be able to provide a decent return unless you have a technology that leap frogs all others. If you've got that you don't need to come here. JMHO
JG
If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and smells like a duck, does that mean you should wait for the vet to confirm it's a duck or shoot it?
Hi! and thx, glad to see you here!
I've learned a lot through his experience. I've yet to see a public biofuels company worth a damn. All are putting up smoke screens 99% of the time. You won't see me working for another one.
My wife Rebecca did the background vocals on you must be crazy. She can sing huh? It's just a home recording with digital drums, need to redo it someday. She's my "friend" on myspace, you can hear more of her there. She writes well too. We went to Lincoln Center last week for her birthday to hear Emily Saxe perform one of her songs. My little brother Ryan and daughter Kristina are pretty good too, check em out if you get a chance.
Allen's doing well, speak often, never gives up either.
JG - they defaulted. We set up a new payment program and schedule, and they defaulted again. I was then told they didn't have the money to finish it. They were trying to do a JV with someone that would put up the remainder. They also needed a site, a tank farm, loading/unloading systems, etc. We were only contracted for the processor, not the whole facility. When that didn't work they asked me to sell it to someone else and refund the monies paid. I've been trying to do just that. Legally I could walk or hit them with a "restocking" fee as is a standard practice in these situations.
I just found a PR where they called it a 7.5 MGPY processor, interesting. I was contracted to build a 2M GPY processor. I was doing it at cost for my buddy hoping it would lauch them and I'd have a bunch more to build at the normal price. I've known Allen Giles for a long time, he is a great guy, one of the smartest in the industry IMO. I was betting on him but his hands were tied without funding.
Thx!
My daughter is a publicist, I'll get some advice and check out business wire as you advised.
I know SEO pretty good, type fuel tanks in a search engine you'll see. I'll cover Google with the truth in no time.
I told my lawyer to get them to release an apology PR or countersue with both barrels.
J, for the record, I understand your opinion. Also for the record, I don't care. If you are worried about your investment in this company I can understand that too. I am proud of what I do, enough to put my name on it, that won't change. 80% of my business comes from repeat customers. Nothing personal, but I don't take business advice from anonymous guys pumping pink sheet stocks.
He paid a PR firm to put my family name in broadcast headlines accusing me of absolute bullshit that was reposted here. I have every right to come here, wake you guys up, and defend my reputation. Sorry if you're investment in a sub penny pink sheet stock is at risk as some real information comes out from someone that actually knows what goes on behind the smoke and mirrors show.
I'm banking on my first amendment right to speak the truth in defense of my reputation and the fact he defaulted on our agreements. If he sees these posts he might wake up, or he might start to realize the fight he picked. My lawyer has a slam dunk with enough ammo to take it to another level.
Call it now, 888-708-5423, my direct line is 315-703-3264, leave a message, I'll reply here.
Criminal? Why am I a criminal?
What's your real name? (My name is Lowell "Todd" Fitzsimmons) I have never been convicted of a crime, never once sued by a customer (till now). I was never given stock in this either (that's your best clue).
I've got 2 posts remaining so here's how you figure everything else out. I own a small company that builds pump, tank, and control systems that I started in 1998. We have a 35,000 sq ft factory in Syracuse, NY. I donated the first fuel system to sell biodiesel at a truck stop. I have a wife, 3 dogs and 3 kids, a family full of musicians and engineers. All of my "investments" have 6 strings on them. I once bought a million shares of this so I could say I owned a million shares of something, sold it at a loss a week later. Now I go to casino online and do much better. I am an engineer, musician, and tree hugger. My daughter is the publicist for justicianow.org. Listen to Revolution at myspace.com/toddfitzsimmons and you'll understand why I am in to biodiesel.
Let's see, Aziz is a CEO of a pink sheet stock.....do the math.
In case someone is fooled by todays pr, don't be; Amelot defaulted on our contract, didn't pay, then didn't pay as agreed on subsequent promises repeatedly...It's so cut and dry. Aziz is the biggest idiot I've encountered in twenty years of business by far. This was my first experience with having an innebriated client (in my opinion) call me at home in the evening several times and spew nonsense as well. I have never been sued by a customer, and completed contracts for KBR, State Dept, NASA, and Rolls Royce in 2007 with flying colors. We are worthy and well qualified at what we do. I am a pissed off irishman and will make this little @#$% pay, I promise. Anyone that thinks he will accomplish much is mistaken in my opinion. I was told his family cut off his funds and that's why he couldn't pay me. I agreed to sell it to others and refund 75% as a gentlemen as most would tell him to take a hike. That just changed. Keep your eye on ebay, may be some good deals there soon.