April 15, 2013
Shop Talk
Q&A With James F. Wood Of ThermoEnergy Corp.
PHOTO/MATT VOLPINI
James F. Wood, Chairman & CEO, ThermoEnergy Corp.
By Rick Saia
James F. Wood began the year with a new job — finishing up as deputy assistant secretary for clean coal with the U.S. Department of Energy and taking over as CEO at ThermoEnergy in Worcester. The company, which marks its 25th anniversary this year, less than two years after moving its headquarters from Arkansas, is a diversified manufacturer of industrial wastewater treatment and power-generation equipment. It has particularly been involved in fracking, a drilling process primarily used to find oil and natural gas and that has raised environmental concerns. (The company tries to recover and recycle clean, usable water from contaminated “flowback” water.) Wood said a lot of private equity is entering the fracking market and big players are using the process to produce a lot of gas and oil.
How does your experience with the federal government help your new role?
I know a little bit more about how regulatory policy works than I would otherwise know, and in particular, how policy works with respect to the power side. But I imagine the rulemaking process is similar (with) the EPA for water as it is for power. So I think that it will help me and help guide the company with the products it selects and what parts of the industry we choose to participate in.
Is regulation a big issue right now in your industry?
Not as big as it is in the power industry. It's a smaller piece of the industry today.
With what you’re doing in the fracking business, does that do a lot to allay the environmental concerns?
I don't think it's going to completely allay the environmental concerns, because there's still disposal to take place, but there's a lot less disposal to take place, and the water that's being used today (in Texas, Pennsylvania and North Dakota) is fresh water. So, I think what people will look at and say is “Well, you use one load of fresh water, then you reuse that load of fresh water time and time and time again, and dispose of very little amounts of wastewater.” That's a better solution than using fresh water every single time that you frack a well.
In the company’s most recent financial statement (November 2012), your revenue was on a roll and your losses were becoming smaller. What’s happening?
I think the company was layered too heavily in some areas with non-productive resources. Those are gone, and we're trying to tighten up in the areas of G&A and in our sales and marketing.
In that same month, the company signed a contract for nearly $1 million to test clean coal technology. What’s the future for that energy source?
That is an area that I am barred from speaking about because of my time at the Department of Energy. I can tell you publicly that that is a grant from the federal government of $1 million for a subsidiary company called Unity Power Alliance, which is a joint venture between ourselves and (Italian engineering and technology firm ITEA) and the intent is for us to demonstrate a 100-kilowatt flameless combustion system that will burn three different kinds of coals under pressure.
The company moved its headquarters from Arkansas to Worcester less than two years ago. Is there a possibility of expansion here?
I was talking to Congressman McGovern (in March) about that very thing. One hopes so. We have 48,000 square feet out in back. It's empty today, so we certainly have the capacity. We have the labor. It's a good location for this, it's easy to ship (products) in and out. On the other hand, these are also very easy to build in the field; there are a lot of procured parts and there are some special parts that we make ourselves. I would like to have it here. I would like to keep the headquarters here and hopefully we'll do that.
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Shop Talk - James F. Wood, ThermoEnergy Corp.
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