Commercialization

GreenCert™

Evergreen Energy subsidiary C-Lock Technology Inc.® is deploying its GreenCert greenhouse gas information management solution with strong partners in the three geographic regions of North America, Europe and Asia.

Through its GreenCert management and measurement solution, C-Lock Technology will profit from the energy, industrial and agricultural industries’ financial motivation to improve the verifiable accuracy of their carbon measurements. When the price of greenhouse gas emissions was free, there was no cost to inaccurate measurement, but when a price on greenhouse gas emissions is imposed, the costs of inaccurate measurement can be high. C-Lock will gain revenue from consulting fees, technology licensing and, principally, sharing in proceeds from the sale of emission credits measured and generated by C-Lock. The business is characterized by recurring revenue, low capital intensity, high returns on investment and robust profit margins linked to high volumes. GreenCert can be scaled significantly, rapidly, across multiple industry sectors and customized for clients.

Europe

In Europe, where cap-and-trade carbon markets are well-established under the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme, C-Lock Technology is evaluating GreenCert's future implementation in Poland’s power generation and agriculture sectors with its partner Crowley-Shindler Management LLC, which has a long, successful track record of new technology infrastructure deployments in Poland. Power generation accounts for 72 percent of Poland’s greenhouse gas emissions and 95 percent of that country’s electricity is generated by coal. C-Lock Technology’s agreement with Crowley-Shinder calls for 14 energy plant pilot projects to include two full-scale C-Lock deployments with a minimum payment to C-Lock of $12.5 million. Crowley-Shindler has operated in Poland since 1990. During the past 25 years, it has arranged $4.5 billion in project financing and in the past 23 years it has owned and operated more than 30 wireless telecommunications technology and infrastructure businesses in the U.S., Europe and Latin America. In addition to being one of the world’s leading wireless technology companies, Crowley Infrastructure Development Group is a partner and developer in the field of revitalization of urban areas and transport infrastructure in Poland.

Asia

C-Lock Technology has a signed agreement with one of the world’s largest electronics manufacturers, Foxconn/Hon Hai Technology Group, for the licensing of the GreenCert carbon information management solution across all of the Asia-Pacific region. At Kaohsiung Software Park in southern Taiwan, Foxconn/Hon Hai will recruit several hundred software engineers with special industry skills to help make the GreenCert technology system meet the specific needs of different Asian industries.

The Marketplace

According to The World Bank, global trade in carbon credits doubled in 2008 at US$126 billion compared to US$64 billion in 2007. (Download the entire World Bank Report as a PDF file.) According to Point Carbon, global trade in carbon credits reached nearly US$100 billion in 2008. New Carbon Finance estimates the global carbon market at $118 billion in 2008 with a projected $150 billion in 2009. Orbeo, a joint venture between Societe Generale and Rhodia SA in London projects a global carbon market of $2 trillion per year by 2020.

K-Fuel®

Using an enhanced design engineered by Bechtel Power Corporation and Evergreen Engineers, Evergreen Energy is pursuing joint venture and licensing opportunities for its K-Fuel refined coal technology in Asia and the United States. In Asia, Evergreen is placing special emphasis on China and in Indonesia with the equity support of Sumitomo Corporation, Indonesia and China are both home to vast reserves of lower-rank coals. In the United States, Evergreen is seeking opportunities to license, joint venture or partner for the construction of a K-Fuel Terminals located at the intersection of multiple coal supplies and forms of transportation. In addition, K-Fuel plants can be constructed at mine mouths, as terminals or hubs located near multiple coal sources and forms of transportation, or as K-Direct® plants co-located with new or existing power plants.

History and Background

First developed almost 30 years ago in a laboratory at Stanford Research Institute by Edward Koppelman, today’s combination of environmental concerns, energy demands and economic necessities make K-Fuel the right bridge fuel for today’s coal-fired power generators. In 2005 Evergreen constructed the world’s first large-scale commercial coal refinery near Gillette, Wyoming. The plant began producing K-Fuel in late 2005 that was delivered to customers and used for successful test burns at utilities and industrial boilers. The “Ft. Union” plant, as it was called, has since been idled but served as a business development vehicle and as a development platform for Bechtel Power Corporation and Evergreen engineers to achieve multiple process improvements that allowed Bechtel to engineer an enhanced, standardized plant design with significant efficiency and production improvements. No Bechtel enhanced facilities have been built to date.

The Terminal Concept

Evergreen has tested K-Fuel technology on more then 100 types of coals from around the world, providing the basis for a K-Fuel Terminal located near customers and at the intersection of multiple coal types and forms of transportation. Different coal types from Wyoming, Illinois, Texas, Indonesia or elsewhere can be delivered by water or rail. After processing, the refined coals can be blended with local coals then transported to multiple nearby customers by truck, train, ship or barge. The K-Fuel Terminal offers customers an excellent opportunity for flexible fuel sources and custom coal blends to address specific performance and emissions needs.

The Marketplace

Demand for energy and coal continues to grow. Globally, world energy demands will rise by 45 percent in the next 20 years and coal will account for a third of the increase. In Asia alone there is more than 230 billion available tons of lower-rank coal that can be upgraded with K-Fuel technology and used to fuel Asia’s economic growth. Unlike futuristic “clean coal” technologies (carbon capture and sequestration or CCS) that should be pursued but are years away from wide scale deployment, K-Fuel technology can be applied right now to existing or newly constructed power plants. With 140 nations, including the United States, agreeing on the need for a global treaty to limit mercury emissions, the ability of the K-Fuel process to remove significant amounts of mercury from coal, up to 70 percent, before it is burned stands as an immediate solution to this pressing need.

With an equity investment from Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation, Evergreen is in the process of studying and analyzing a K-Fuel plant on the Indonesian island of Kalimatan in cooperation with a major Indonesian mining concern.

In China, home to 52 billion tons of lower-rank coal, Evergreen is working with one of the nation’s largest government-owned energy companies on a proposed joint venture project to construct a K-Fuel plant that would upgrade low-rank coal mined in Inner Mongolia for shipment to more populated areas.