Found these two ref. on STHK on NASDAQ site:
WILTON, Conn., Nov. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Startech Environmental Corp. (Nasdaq: STHK), the world leader in plasma waste remediation and recycling technology, announced today that its Chief Executive Officer, Joseph F. Longo, conducted an audio interview with CEOcast on November 10, 2000. The interview focused on the company's main product, the Startech Plasma Waste Converter, which can destroy toxic and hazardous waste irreversibly and safely in a cost effective manner. The interview can be heard in its entirety by logging onto the CEOcast website at ceocast.com. CEOcast will archive this interview for five (5) business days.
Startech Environmental Corp. (Nasdaq: STHK), the world leader in plasma waste remediation and recycling technology, announced today that it was featured in a CBS MarketWatch article that was first released on Saturday, November 11, 2000. The article can be read in its entirety by logging onto the CBS Market Watch website at cbsmarketwatch.com.
Startech readies for Age of Hydrogen
Waste company makes fuel synthesis gas from trash
By Tomi Kilgore, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 7:30 AM ET Nov 11, 2000
Newswatch
Latest Headlines
WILTON, Conn. (CBS.MW) - In "Back to the Future," Dr. Emmett Brown puts a banana peel into a compact fusion reactor to power his DeLorean back to the future. It sounds more than a little farfetched, but Startech Environmental shares a similar vision.
Startech (STHK: news, msgs) says if you put hazardous and non-hazardous waste, including infectious hospital wastes, rubber, land fill and drugs, into its Plasma Waste Converter (PWC), out will come a hydrogen-rich synthesis fuel gas.
The small Connecticut company is gearing up for what it expects to be the Age of Hydrogen.
And why not, hydrogen's the most abundant element in the universe. It also has the highest energy content - 52,000 British Thermal Units (BTUs) per pound - of any know fuel, according to the U.S. Dept. of Energy.
More critically, when combined with a fuel cell, hydrogen is supposed to produce a clean source of power.
But getting from here - that is from reliance on fossil fuels to power our cars and homes - to there - that is to the promise of clean and inexpensive fuel is another story.
Is Startech, essentially a waste disposal company, one way for investors to hitch a ride?
Startech's shares moved from the OTC Bulletin Board to the Nasdaq SmallCap market on Nov. 2, but it hasn't attracted notice from research analysts. Investors who tread here look to be on their own for a while.
Fuel cell interest
The company boasts that if you put in 300 drums of waste, only one drum of inert, glass-like solid comes out. The remainder of the output is Plasma Converted Gas (PCG), which the company says has an energy value of four times what it took to create it. The next step is to attach a device called a StarCell to the PWC to separate the hydrogen.
Startech isn't the first company to try to work with the gasses that garbage creates. What's changing now is that interest is growing in hydrogen. The gas is used in fuel cells, which generate electricity.
On Nov. 1, a number of companies and governmental organizations launched the California Fuel Cell Partnership. Among the partners are the U.S. Dept. of Transportation, Ballard Power Systems (BLDP: news, msgs) and International Fuel Cells (IFC), as well as the big-three auto makers, DaimlerChrysler (DCX: news, msgs) , Ford (FORD: news, msgs) and General Motors (GM: news, msgs) .
The hope is that fuel cells will be used to power industrial plants and cars, and perhaps laptops and toys.
Storage issues
Holding back the technology is the cost and practicality of deploying it on a large scale. Peter Dalpe, a spokesperson at International Fuel Cells, points out that there is currently no infrastructure to readily distribute and store hydrogen.
On Sept. 19, Dalpe's company, a subsidiary of United Technologies (UTX: news, msgs) , formed a joint venture to with Shell Hydrogen, a global business of the Royal Dutch/Shell group of companies (RD: news, msgs) , to develop fuel processors that convert fossil fuels into hydrogen.
"Fuel processors provide a practical and critical bridge between today's technology and tomorrow's by providing hydrogen from safe, inexpensive, and readily available sources," said Don Huberts, Shell Hydrogen's chief executive.
Huberts believes fuel cells will eventually be used extensively in cars and buses, but thinks that is still "way down the road." You can put the fuel cell in the car, but you still can't easily bring the hydrogen to the car.
He does envision that maybe 15 years from now fuel processors should be small enough to fit in a car. For now Huberts thinks hydrogen produced for stationary use has the best chance for sales.
Startech's plans
Startech says that its PWC may not fit in a car, but that there is interest for it to be built for stationary use. As evidence of that interest, Startech said that on Nov. 2, the company and Egypt-based Amandla Environmental are in talks to build two five hundred-ton per day PWC resource centers and up to six ten-ton per day PWC systems, and that the negotiations have been elevated to the "highest levels" in the Egyptian government. Amandla estimated the contract could be worth $300 million.
On Nov. 8, Startech also said it signed a "letter of intent" to sell a five-ton per day PWC for a site in Rhode Island by an undisclosed operator of hazardous waste facilities in the U.S. and Europe. The company isn't revealing the operator until the contract is finalized, and that's expected within 60 days.
The two in-the-works deals represent the base from which Startech says it will build the hydrogen business. Judging by the stock's trading since it moved to the SmallCap market, it's pretty clear Startech hasn't given enough guidance for investors to understand the revenue potential of the business for now.
Startech's shares ended down 63 cents at $7.25, giving the company a market valuation of $55.9 million.
No "news" on the Army response. Nice Find.
Jim |
