Vivakor announced that it has acquired strategic intellectual properties (IP) from QuantumSphere, Inc. Vivakor has secured sought after patented Nanocatalyst IP from QSI in an all-stock transaction. The technology produces various catalytic elements found on the periodic table in the 30-60 nanometer range. The result is a catalyst with an extremely high surface area yielding greater catalytic activity.
As much as 90% of all chemical processes utilize catalysts (including oil refining, pollution abatement, and production of fuels and chemicals). Due to the need for cleaner fuels and more energy-efficient chemical production processes, global demand for catalysts is forecasted at over $20 billion in 2019.
Regarding near-term commercial opportunities, QSI's lead product, FeNIX, is an iron-based nanocatalyst designed for use in the production of ammonia made by the 100 year-old Haber Bosch process. Widely known as one of the world's most critical chemicals, nearly 200 million tons of ammonia are produced annually (82% of which is used to make fertilizer for food production). The FeNIX product is applied as a coating to existing standard commercial ammonia catalysts and is considered a “drop-in” solution which is critical when introducing and commercializing a catalyst enhancement technology in the conservative chemicals industry.
In 2015 QSI demonstrated FeNIX product efficacy in two commercial ammonia plants located in central China which documented up to a 15% improvement. Due to an increase in catalytic activity, higher production conversion rates can reduce energy consumption and increase production output to deliver greater profits to chemical plant owners and operators. A 5% increase in production could be worth millions of dollars of revenue per plant each year. QSI's value proposition is applicable to hundreds of chemical plants globally, representing billions of dollars in annual output. Vivakor will leverage QSI's patented capabilities and existing commercial relationships to help penetrate the $100 billion ammonia market. Vivakor will also leverage QSI's IP to develop catalysts for other key chemical markets, such as hydrogen, methanol, light olefins, and other hydro carbon based processes.
This key acquisition adds to Vivakor's expanding technology portfolio and has thus added another major technological advantage with the capability of extracting high demand natural resources. Longtime QSI supporter and senior secured lender, Novus Capital, along with several other junior secured lenders were instrumental in approving and driving the transaction to completion over the past several months.
Vivakor continues to drive shareholder value through its strategic acquisitions, partnerships and overall direction which add significantly to the company's balance sheet. Vivakor's intellectual properties are proprietary and patented with a low-cost basis in their operational model in the natural resources space.
