QS Energy Inc (QSEP)

[Myrka]

The sections in red below from the September UPDATE tell us vaguely what the problem was in their initial field tests last summer. It sounds like the conductivity of the oil around the grid pack is a problem. The primary power supply began to operate erratically as soon as they started testing. Can they redesign the grid pack to provide a magnetic fiel and keep the grid pack insulated from oil conductivity?

Full-scale testing on track to resume in Q4 2019 (QS ENERGY PROJECT STATUS UPDATE, 3 September 2019)

The power supply was repaired and reinstalled in late August. The system operated as expected, and limited testing was performed at that time.

“Results of this limited testing were consistent with recent laboratory tests performed at our Tomball, Texas facilities. As expected, the repaired power supply was not capable of providing sufficient power to fully treat the crude oil under commercial operating conditions. This was, however, an important step in support of the Company’s current plans to modify and re-start AOT demonstration project operations.”

Dr. Christopher Gallagher explained, “At full commercial scale, our AOT device operates as a complex and dynamic system. Over the past few months, we have advanced our understanding of the oil flow and electric field interactions of this system both in the lab and in the field. As expected, AOT demonstration operations and testing with the repaired power supply were limited due largely to the combined effects of crude oil conductivity and operating limits of the installed power supply. Though limited, results of these in-field tests were consistent with recent laboratory tests performed both at our Tomball facility and at Temple University. Based on testing to date, we continue to move forward confident in our plans to reconfigure the AOT and re-start AOT demonstration operations before the end of the year. In the meantime, we will continue testing to further improve our understanding of this complex system.”

“In anticipation of this result,” continued Lane, “we put an accelerated plan in place to procure a new power supply capable of providing significantly more power and reconfigure a newly optimized AOT grid pack assembly based on our latest laboratory and in-field test results. Our longest lead-time item is the new power supply, which has been ordered and is in production. Based on the vendor’s current schedule, the new power supply should be delivered by late October to early November. Parts for the reconfigured grid pack are also in production and based on vendor schedules, should arrive at our facilities by mid-October. Subject to on-time vendor deliveries and timely re-assembly of our equipment on-site, we continue to anticipate the resumption of AOT demonstration project operations in the fourth quarter of 2019.