New spark plug could spark new Minnesota company
Neal St. Anthony
Tuesday, July 10, 2001
Several veteran Twin Cities engineers with roots in Control Data, Honeywell and their own consulting practice are trying to bring a cleaner, faster-burning spark plug
to production in an industry that hasn't changed much for generations.
Last year they acquired the rights to "TorchJet" technology from Delphi Automotive, the former General Motors Corp. auto parts business that is now an
independent company.
The four principals formed Edina-based based Savage Enterprises in February to advance TorchJet. They were retained as consultants to GM in 1998 and ended up
spending 14 months negotiating the patent, development and production rights to the prototype technology in a deal that was signed last year.
"I've now been working without a paycheck for about a year and a half," quipped Savage Enterprises Chief Executive Steve Kensinger, a former Control Data business
manager, professor of electrical engineering at the University of Minnesota, and CEO of Kit Corp. for 12 years until it was sold in 1995.
Kensinger and his three partners have put in about $500,000 and are trying to raise up to $3.5 million in an initial round of private-equity financing to pay for
additional testing and design work.
"There are a handful of local 'angels' who have said they'll invest once we have a lead venture capital firm," said Al Bennett, the chief technical officer and a veteran
of several transportation and technology firms.
But local venture capitalists, many badly burned last year by the failure of dot-com companies, have been slow to invest in new firms lately.
Kensinger said negotiations are underway with several financiers, including engine makers.
"We'll raise the money," said Kensinger, who hopes to collect another $5 million in the fourth quarter and begin production in mid-2002 through manufacturing
partners.
Delphi has agreed to acquire 8 million to 27 million plugs annually and distribute them through its huge network. Kensinger and Delphi's research indicates that there's
an additional market in two-cycle engines, such as snowmobiles and lawnmowers, where pollution emissions are higher than those of cars.
Savage also has established a relationship with Bujias Mexicanas, a spark plug manufacturer in Mexico that has long supplied Delphi.
The TorchJet plug ignites the air-fuel vapor inside the cylinder instead of through the electrical arc, the technology in current plugs that hasn't changed much for
decades. Delphi started testing the plug several years ago. Tests show the TorchJet plug can run without engine modification.
They also showed that the plug:
Increases horsepower and fuel efficiency by up to 10 percent.
Cuts hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide pollutants, which contribute to greenhouse gases and global warming.
Results in smoother operation and improved cold-weather starting.
"We've seen 40 percent more consistency in ignition firing," Bennett said. "It's smoother, more efficient. You're not burning fuel that's wasted."
The TorchJet is configured to ignite the main fuel-air mix within the body of the plug, rather than in the engine cylinder. Fuel and air, pushed into the chamber during
the engine compression stroke, is ignited and a jet of burning gas is propelled into the main combustion chamber.
"It works like a rocket," said Kensinger, who holds engineering degrees from North Dakota State and the University of Minnesota. "The TorchJet ignitor completes a
burn 2.2 times faster than a standard plug. The ignition takes place inside the plug. It's the difference between lighting a candle indoors and outdoors."
The Savage principals believe they have a good shot at cracking the $1.4 billion U.S. market for spark plugs, most of which sell for less than $3 apiece. First, they'll have
to raise more capital and work out the bugs en route to mass production that they project will result in a profitable, Minnesota-based company of more than $100
million in revenue by 2005.
The two other partners in Savage are Chief Operating Officer Duane Lee, a veteran management engineer at Cessna, Honeywell Defense Systems and Alliant
Techsystems who joined Kessinger's consulting firm in 1997; and Tom Ahonen, vice president of manufacturing, a veteran of Kimberly-Clark Corp. and the
management consulting unit of the former Coopers and Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers).
Betting on fuel cells
Lynn Woodward, an inveterate entrepreneur, one-time campaigner for Gov. Jesse Ventura, lobbyist against public subsidies for professional sports stadiums and
former finance professor at the University of Wisconsin, is betting that fuel-cell technology will get big fast in the Midwest.
Woodward, now president of Fuel Cell Heat and POWER of St. Paul, will speak this week at a "Fuel Cell Investors Conference" in Portland, Ore., sponsored in part by
Salomon Smith Barney, Texaco and Ford Motor Co.
Woodward formed the business with state Rep. Phil Krinkie, R-Shoreview, whose family has owned the Snelling Co., a heating-and-cooling firm, for generations.
POWER rents space from Snelling in St. Paul's Midway district.
Fuel Cell Heat plans to begin Midwest distribution for U.S. and European manufacturers next year and install customized, fuel-cell power units for colleges, hospitals
and other commercial users.
"I found 250 manufacturers in Europe and the U.S. [that build components]," Woodward said. "I need technicians, electricians and plumbers who can get up to speed on
fuel cells by sending them to training programs at the manufacturers, or they send their engineers here.
"The peak time for furnace and air-conditioning technicians is summer and fall. Fuel cells represent a steady stream of business."
Thanks partly to research and field projects underwritten by the U.S. departments of Defense and Energy, the cost of generating electricity from fuel-cell plants has
fallen markedly in recent years.
(In a fuel cell, hydrogen and air react to produce electric power. Hot water is the derivative product.)
It's still more expensive to produce electricity from a fuel-cell plant that to buy it at retail from the utility. But there's increasing concern about power outages and
environmental concerns over more coal-fired plants and high-voltage power lines.
The "distributive energy" movement sweeping the country is resulting in more close-to-the-source wind turbines, methane plants, wood-fired boilers and auxiliary
generators powered by something other than diesel fuel.
Most fuel-cell systems are fueled with natural gas. Woodward sees increasing use of feedlot manure, sewage-treatment effluent and other waste-to-energy gases that
could power stations for hospitals and factories.
Residential applications should follow.
Neal St. Anthony can be reached at 612-673-7144 or Nstanthony@startribune.com.
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