D.E. has given us a very good description of how the fluid generation process operates, and he confirmed in my mind how they operate. To begin with, he indicated the process is largely automatic, and the fluid flows into a tank. From the tank it can then be used to fill anything from small bottles, perhaps a gallon, or even less for specialty products, to filling tanker trucks, if that's how it's being delivered to a distributor, or major user.
The question may be, just how big is the tank the generator is filling. I would hope that it's over 10,000 gallons, perhaps even 100,000 wouldn't be too much. Why? Several reasons.
For one, it would allow all production to continue, even if the processor had to be taken down for major maintenance for awhile, as the tank could be filled before shutting down for such planned maintenance. Secondly, if tankers were lined up to take delivery, if fed from a substantial sized tank, several tanker trucks could be filled quickly.
Wikipedia indicates that tanker trucks range from over 5000 gallons to over 11,000. In some cases, double tankers may be used. By having a capacity approaching 100,000 gallons several tankers could easily be handled in a day.
I'm not suggesting that every distributor have such capacity, only those intending to sell in such bulk where they're loading up tanker truck, or loading large bulk tanks into freight haulers, where orders they're dealing with are in the thousands of gallons each. If they're intending to deliver primarily to consumer in gallon and smaller bottles, then a smaller tank may be all that's necessary.
I believe it should be clear that the smaller the size of the container, the higher the sales price on a per gallon basis. I don't know, but would suspect that a tanker truck might bring in under $10 a gallon, whereas we know that one gallon bottles are selling for over $40 in the retail marketplace, perhaps $20 to the distributor.
I don't know, but would suspect that PCTL's distributors pay the company a fixed price for each gallon they produce, and I'd guess it to be a few dollars. For talking purposes, let's say it's just $2 a gallon, if a distributor is averaging 5000 gallons a day in production, that's $10,000 a day going to the company. If that same distributor is averaging sales at $12 a gallon, his net is $50,000 for the day.
If anyone thinks my numbers are wrong, please contribute what they should be. I'm not suggesting that from day one a distributor can sell that much a day, but in time I believe they'll sell more than that. I believe the bulk production units are capable of 10,000 gallons a day, but that may be operating 24 hours a day. It's very possible that a new distributor who has say a 20,000 gallon tank may operate until the tank is full, then not restart production until the tank is down to what they're typically delivering daily. Ideally, demand will build till demand equals what the sell during open hours, and finally demand builds to the point that the processor is used many hours that they're not open for customers.
My point is this can be both lucrative to both the distributor, and to PCTL who's being paid for every gallon produced, as well as for all the equipment that they make that's either sold, or leased by their distributors. I believe the equipment being sold or leased would have more like a 50/50 split.
There are probably a few other considerations, one is if PCTL actually gets the order for say 10,000 gallon and requests a distributor to produce and deliver it, PCTL should receive more than if the distributor got the business themselves. Another would be if the distributor get the order, and wants PCTL to fill it. I would think all this is laid out in the agreements the company makes with its distributors.
The key is, it's win-win, the more successful the distributor is, the more successful PCTL is.
Gary
