American Security Resources Corp. (ARSC)

[lowman]

Posted yesterday, though a tad bit dated:

http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2007/07/30/daily40.html




Ohio U. researcher's fuel-efficiency technology goes to market


Dr. Geraldine Botte takes pride in the fact that the fuel-efficent technology she developed was born in Ohio.

Through an agreement with the Athens-based American Hydrogen Corp., that technology also will be commercialized in Ohio.

Ohio University announced Friday that Botte, the director of the university's Electrochemical Engineering Research Laboratory, closed a deal with the company for worldwide rights to her patent-pending ammonia catalytic electrolyzer technology, which streamlines the conversion of ammonia into hydrogen to produce inexpensive power. The deal includes a $600,000 sponsored research contract for the research and development of the technology, funds that benefit Botte and other researchers and an agreement granting the university's foundation equity in the company.

Botte said the deal is advantageous to the future development of fuel technology because it doesn't just stop at what she's done so far.

"The beauty of this is that the faculty are not tied down," she said, adding that American Hydrogen is collaborating with the university to potentially market more technology down the road. "We have room to grow."

The company, a subsidiary of Houston-based American Security Resources Corp. (OTC:ARSC), has moved into the Ohio University Innovation Center, the business incubator that specializes in helping biotech companies get started.

Botte's technology initially will be used to develop fuel for a hydrogen generator that could supplant, for instance, electricity as a site's primary power source. The process she developed takes ammonia and applies electric power to break it into pure nitrogen and hydrogen in an efficient and energy-conscious way. The current, energy-wasting process requires breaking the ammonia down, separating the hydrogen from the nitrogen and then heating it at high temperatures to preserve it.

"(This new process) is like talking the same language," Botte said. "It's power to power."