Good day, and welcome to the ClearSign Technologies Second Quarter 2021 Conference Call. All participants will be in listen only mode. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Matthew Selinger of FIRM IR Group. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, and thank you, operator. Welcome, everyone, to the ClearSign Technologies Corporation Second Quarter 2021 Results Conference Call. During this conference call, the company will make forward looking statements. Any statement that is not a statement of historical fact is a forward looking statement. This includes remarks about the company's projections, expectations, plans, beliefs and prospects.
These statements are based on judgments The risks and uncertainties associated with the forward looking statements made in this conference call include, but are not limited to, filings with the SEC, including a discussion in the Risk Factors section of the 2020 Annual Report on the Form 10 ks. Except as required by law, ClearSign assumes no responsibility to update these forward looking statements to reflect future events or actual outcomes and does not intend to do so. On the call with me today is Jim Deller, ClearSign's President and Chief Executive Officer. So at this point, I would like to turn the call over to CEO, Jim Deller. Jim, Please go ahead.
Thank you, Matthew. And thank you everyone for joining us today The ClearSign Second Quarter 2021 Investor Update Call. This last quarter has been a mix of great progress and encouragement as we move multiple product lines through the technical stages of commercialization and customer engagement. Admittedly, I will say though the past weeks have not been without some frustration and separately some sadness. Before I start and review the financial data reported in our Q2 10 Q, I want to remember the passing of our CFO, Brian Fike.
I'm sure that many of you saw the announcement that Brian Fike passed away at the end of July. Collectively, we are deeply saddened by Brian's passing The entire ClearSign community continues to mourn his loss. And on behalf of our Board of Directors and employees, We extend our sincerest condolences to his family. Brian gave many years to this company, and I want to recognize his contribution. Brian was a great colleague and friend to all at ClearSign.
We will all miss him. For reassurance regarding succession, we have engaged some very confident professional temporary staff to maintain our finance function And further develop and strengthen our systems. While at the same time, we are working with a nationwide recruitment firm to find our next permanent leader Of our finance team. On the call today, I will provide our financial overview I will then move on to our operational update. In that, regarding the major topics, I will start off With an overview of our process burner business, giving an update on our projects with the 2 international supermajor refiners And also the performance and developments with our operational installations.
I will then move the discussion to our boiler burner business, Well, we have made significant developments since our last call. In my remarks, I will address North America and China, As well as the advances we have made in both our FiTubE and Water Tube products. After some general business related and closing remarks, We will open up the call for questions and answers. Reviewing our financial data as reported in our recently filed 10 Q. Our net cash used in operations for the quarter ended June 30, 2021 was $2,160,000 compared to $1,650,000 for the same period in 2020.
I will go into detail on this temporary increase shortly. Our cash and cash equivalents were approximately $10,600,000 at the end of the Q2 of 2021 compared to Approximately $10,700,000 at the end of the Q1 2021. I want to give some details behind these numbers because we do continue to be very conscious of our expenditures. Whilst we also have certain key projects and technologies to prove and to be meaningful, it has to be done at industrial scale. As these testing activities are a necessary step in the commercialization and adoption of our technology in the industry, we are pushing ahead to complete them.
These tests will not be a permanent activity, so this will pass, but we are seeing increased cash consumption while these Product proving activities are in progress. Primary among these is the expansion of our process burner capability And secondly, the proving of our new fire tube and water tube boiler burner technology. I will go into more detail regarding these product lines later on this The key point is that the increased operating expenses are not a change in our management philosophy, but a short term, Nonetheless, a necessary activity that will pass. As stated in our recent 10 Q filing, Our operating expenses for the Q2 increased by 28% or just under $450,000 compared to the same period last year. In addition to the increased testing costs referred to earlier, during the Q2, we made payments and accruals for the recruitment of a new leader for our finance team.
Additional costs required for temporary staff to maintain our finance function until the position is filled. And finally, An accrual for a severance payment agreed with Mr. Fink as part of his separation agreement. To clarify timing, these payments were agreed to in April therefore, are included as an accrual in the Q2. As of June 30, 2021, the Company has sold an aggregate of 1,092,570 shares of common stock Under its ATM program at an average price of $5.03 per share.
Gross proceeds total approximately $5,500,000 and net cash proceeds approximated $5,300,000 Shares sold in the ATM program in the 3 months ended June 30, 2021, totaled 151,822 At an average price of $5.56 It should be noted that cash received from our ATM program in the 2nd quarter Included approximately $1,100,000 from shares sold in the last 2 days of the Q1 are settled in Q2. There were 31,479,454 shares of our common stock issued outstanding as of June 30, 2021. We have confidence in our financial position and balance sheet. And with our quarter ending balances, we have sufficient working capital available to carry us well into 2022. And that is without revenue from any other sources.
I will now change focus and address our major product lines And we'll start with our Process Burner technology. As you will have seen from the press release issued September 3rd, on a call the day before, On which we were expecting to make arrangements for the final stakeholder performance demonstration for ExxonMobil and possibly discuss the schedule for the delivery of the burners, We were given verbal notification to put our testing on hold because the time window to include the burners in the early 2022 turnaround ended in August And all the details required have not been finalized. This news of the project hold was both very disappointing And a surprise to all at ClearSign. Upon reflection, despite this change in plans, we have a lot to be encouraged about. We have given the development of our process burner technology great emphasis to the point that our burners Are now capable of running on virtually any fuel blend required by refineries, including up to 80% hydrogen content.
We have demonstrated that our burners can run when situated so close together that they are almost touching each other, A challenge in itself as refinery engineers know. They have turned down capabilities that match or Seize the usable operating range of most traditional burners and can modulate up and down without human input based on the demands of the refinery operating systems And all with our unique 5 PPM capable NOx control. For those in the industry, Especially customers and engineering companies and to enable everyone to be aware of what this means, I want to take a minute and go into the quantitative details of these capabilities because they are important. ClearSign core process burners now run on fuel gas ranging from natural gas to blends with up to 80% hydrogen content and can operate over a turndown range of 5 to 1 For non industry terminology from 100 percent of design firing rates down to 20% of design firing rate. The burners can light off smoothly on any fuel in that range, including from a cold start when the furnace is full of fresh air.
Depending on the heater operating conditions, we will make NOx guarantees typically between 5 BPM 9 BPM, including under the conditions just described. Regarding proven operational site NOx performance, The formal third party emissions report from our multi burner infrastructure project has not yet been released, but we did take our own measurements And our measurements indicated just over 6 BPM up full rate with a heavy hydrocarbon low pressure waste stream flowing in addition to the normal fuel gas. We believe that where these burners have run on normal fuel gas alone, the NOx performance would be even better. As our testing is run-in the test facility of our partner ZICO, they are very familiar with the development and capabilities of our technology. We believe that our relationship with ZECO remains strong and that we are both looking forward to developing this business.
We have attracted great interest in our technology, both due to its NOx control and ability to function at high intensity and in close confines and are in discussions with major multi site and global refiners seeking our burners for both attributes. We have other significant process burner projects ongoing and in place. The burner for supermajor global refining customer in Europe has been shipped, is on-site and ready to fire up, which is scheduled to occur Early in Q4 of this year. This project will be the 1st installation of the supermajor global refiner for the company and also the first in Europe. While solving an e frac customer in Europe, it is our understanding that this is also a trial opportunity for this client To assess our technology for inclusion in their NOx reduction plans, particularly for their refineries in California.
We do look forward to completing this installation and startup and we'll make an announcement when this has been achieved. Our installation for the Fortune 500 Infrastructure Company continues to run seamlessly. The data that we recorded The results of the independent testing to the extent that we are aware of them have shown the heater operating below the groundbreaking emissions guarantee, Some details of which I gave earlier in my technical digression. The formal report is still within the review period required by the South Coast Air Quality Management And we do not know if any formal announcement will be made by them at the end of this period. If we learn anything official, we will pass that on.
It is quite normal for respective customers to seek referrals from existing customers, and we do know that the engineering company involved in this project Has provided good references for us when requested by prospective new customers. The burners installed at World Oil continue to operate at full rate and consistently. We are in regular contact with oil. As we mentioned previously, 3 of the burners need to be optimized as they were hindered by a control issue during the original startup earlier this year, And we are planning to return to modify those burners to their original condition when the refinery shuts down, and this is anticipated to be early in the Q1 next year. In general, we are seeing more and more interest in our technology.
This is a mix of clients with different needs And who are looking to address an active project as well as those assessing technical and commercial options as part of future planning, Budgeting Processes or Feasibility Studies. As we have said before, I believe there is a great awareness of ClearSign's capabilities in the eyes of the industry, while we also need to recognize that we need success to breed success And that we anticipate being able to provide knowledge of successful installations, ACE studies and similar references We will be one of Amro's powerful sales attributes, especially considering the conservative nature of our industry. It is also worth noting that all the aforementioned projects have been supplied through our collaboration with Veeco, We continue to be a very supportive and proficient partner. In fact, this relationship has provided benefits in The verticals, one of which I will touch on coming up later in my commentary. Turning to boiler burners.
At the time of our last call, we were awaiting a new USA fabricated 125 horsepower burner To ship to the California boiler site in Vasalia, California in the center of the San Joaquin Valley. That has been completed, The burner arrived and California Boiling installed the burner, fabricated the fuel gas supply system and burner controls. We worked together to fine tune the burner and finally conducted our first fire tube customer demonstration event with California Boiler. The demonstration went very well, attracting over 20 visitors from a wide range of industries, including the local regulatory authority. The gas analyzer screen is showing performance of the burner at well below 2.5 ppm NOx And some other photographs from the event were posted on LinkedIn, where we share many company updates.
The operation of this has since been independently verified by a third party source testing firm as meeting the local regulatory requirements. Ultimately, this demonstration also led to multiple requests for proposals. The boiler into which our burner is installed is a rental unit Owned by California Boiler. And since the demonstration, the boiler has been relocated and is being set up for service at a milk processing plant, Providing a great reference for us and our collaboration with California Boiler and giving a customer first hand experience of a ClearSign core burner. This also provides the ability to obtain ongoing operational data, which we will be able to share in support of future sales and marketing efforts.
To expand our product range, we now have fabricated and delivered a much larger 500 horsepower 5 tube boiler burner California Boilers Basilia site. This burner is currently being installed in a second much bigger rental boiler. We are anticipating holding a customer demonstration event with substantially larger audience to show this burner in operation in October of this year. This 500 horsepower size is critical to our plans as the regulations for new and existing boilers of this size and above In the California San Joaquin Valley, require NOx emissions below 2.5 ppm, and we believe There are no other burner technologies with the capability to operate near this level. Even outside of the San Joaquin Valley region, the capability to provide a burner that can control NOx emissions comfortably below permit requirements Avoid the cost of installing and maintaining selective catalytic reduction units, AKA SCRs, in addition to the Operational demands handling the ammonia or urea required to operate them has great value and interest from potential customers.
As environmental emission regulations are enforced and deadlines for compliance get closer, we expect the demand for this technology to grow. It also helps that our partner, California Boiler, has a well established operation and a long client list in this region. Aside from the favorable market traction for these burners in California, rolling out this technology in the USA Auto enables us to provide and optimize the burners where we have our own technical resources to work on them and to then build and test similar burners in China This allows us to maintain overall progress despite experiencing severe limitations in our ability to work in China As COVID makes it difficult to get personnel into China. As I speak here today, however, Our President of ClearSign Asia, Manny Menendez, has been able to enter the country but is subject to a 3 week confinement. He goes through the quarantine process that is a mandatory precursor to working on the ground in China during these times of COVID travel restrictions.
Following the finalization of our 500 horsepower burner and optimization of the fuel gas controls equipment, Our plan is to manufacture a copy of that burner in China and to repeat the certification process that we completed for our 125 4 Star Burner. We do not have the schedule for this to be finalized to date as we need our President of ClearSign Asia to work out logistics with our boiler manufacturer partner there, Changshu Huangliang, Boiler Company Limited. The situation is similar regarding our 125 FineQ boiler burner. We announced the formal certification of this product for sale in China in May of this year. Our next steps are to find 1st adopted customers.
But as we mentioned before, we want to be both strategic and careful in the way that we go about this. Primarily, we see customers in areas we have relationships with 3rd party contractors who can provide service And also installations where we can control access to our technology or at least where we have a high degree of confidence In person. We also have developments of our water tube boiler burner I would like to report. For anyone not familiar with the technology, these are much bigger. Where the small end of our boiler burner range is a 125 horsepower burner we discussed earlier, This water tube boiler burner is 20 times the firing rate.
This is a legacy product that we have slated for redesign, Following the same process is conducted when we developed the commercial design of our 5 tube boiler burners. The redesign is to provide a product that is supplied as a single piece and once designed can be repeated, Rather than having to custom engineer significant components for every product sold, which we believe will enable the product of our CTO, Doctor. Donald Kendrick, for the development of this new burner configuration and the scaling of the new design up to and including a water tube product. The first one of this new water tube boiler burner design Switching the initial activities of this project to Tulsa has again enabled us to keep momentum despite the COVID restrictions in China. In addition, operating this burner for the first time in the ZECO test facility will enable us to optimize Any elements of the design, if required, and to efficiently validate the operating sequence for the various fuel circuits involved In this large burner, upon completion, this will provide a New generation water tube boiler product burner line.
It is pertinent to note at this point that Zika also has an operation, Including fabrication facility in Shanghai, and we are underway producing a twin burner there. Our plan is to arrange for the installation That burner in China and to proceed with the necessary certifications. However, as I caution, We need to obtain an agreement with the Beijing District Heating Group and coordinate your schedule before this can happen and with Mr. Menendez Just arriving in China and still with some quarantine time ahead of him before he can make any in person meetings And considering the volume of activity that is required to complete this installation and COVID travel work limitation, Scheduling and timeline is an ongoing work in progress and yet to be defined. While it has not received much coverage here, we are actively promoting our sensor technology.
Our mobile ClearSign I demonstration unit is in use to the extent our clients are allowed to meet external visitors in person. We are presenting our sensor technology at the American Flame Research Committee Conference in Houston this October, as well as our ClearSign core burner technology, emphasizing the performance of our recent installations in a second presentation. Before ending and moving on to questions, I want to provide a quick review of recent activities and events on the horizon. We are happy that our 1st supermajor process burner is installed in Europe and look forward to the start up, which is expected in the Q4 this year. We believe our process burner technology is developed to the point it provides full functionality of standard burners In addition to operating in tight quarters and delivering game changing low NOx emissions and in cases where heaters are constrained by Our process burner opportunity pipeline continues to evolve We look forward to being able to make future announcements.
Our FiTub product in collaboration with our partner California Boiler Has been demonstrated and well received in California. This has led to significant customer interest and quotation activity on our part. We look forward to moving this business to the truly commercial phase. We have been able to return to China and look forward to reengaging with the heating districts and developing our product lines, alliances and sales channels. We anticipate confirming the design and operating protocol for our new advanced and redesigned 1 piece ClearSign core water cube boiler burner product, which we anticipate will open up opportunities like replacing burners for the heating districts In China, we continue to stick to our asset light business model, which also means we do not have excess personnel.
I do believe we have quality rather than quantity. Over the past few months, the employees of ClearSign have demonstrated nimbleness and dedication We have been pushing our technology in multiple areas to bring it fully to market. As we experienced COVID restrictions affecting our ability to push Forward full pace in China, our domestic boiler program in conjunction with California boiler was accelerated. And this in a similar timeframe to us getting access to the water tube test boiler in Tulsa, enabling us to put the scaling our final design of that product into high gear. In parallel, we have developed our process burner technology to meet any normal firing process heater demand.
In addition to the above, we have a progression of new inquiries requiring engineering and design input, which of course we have been pleased to address. I want to thank the ClearSign employees for what they have done this past quarter, especially our engineers, designers and project managers. It has taken a lot of personal accountability and dedication to do what they have done. And for myself and on behalf of the Board of Directors, want to acknowledge Thank them for it. That concludes my prepared remarks at this time.
Operator, Can you please open up the call for questions?
We will now begin the question and answer session. Our first question today comes from Amit Dayal with H. C. Wainwright.
Thank you. Good afternoon, Jim. Sorry to hear about brands. It's been a pretty eventful quarter for you guys. Just starting with this Exxon news.
Did Exxon go with somebody else? I don't know if you know the answer to that, but did Exxon go with somebody else rather than you guys? And is that relationship pretty much done?
Sumit, first of all, the news that we received from Exxon was just a request on their part To put the testing on hold, because the time required for the engineering to include our burners Into the heater in the upcoming shutdown, basically the window had passed. So, If it was a miss on timing, we don't believe there are any other burner technologies being offered on the market Today, that can get close to what we offer. So we I cannot speak for excellent from Our own knowledge of the market and what we're seeing, there is no other burner technology out there. So
What we've got is what we've
been told by Exxon that this was purely a timing miss and the window had passed. Obviously, we're very disappointed. We were really looking forward to Demonstrating those burners, looking at the you asked about the relationship. I mean, Exxon, like all the refineries, they're a very big potential customer. This is a speed bump in the road for us right here.
We were looking to get At getting this demonstration in the field, we have Made huge and accelerated the development of our process burner technology to get it ready for the wide range of operating requirements that Exon presents us with, but the result is that we are in a much better position now and we have a burner that we'll meet, as I said in the remarks, virtually any Operation any normal operation or a process burner in the industry.
There are
like all refineries, we do foresee NOK reduction requirements, especially being imposed By the air regulation authorities and first among those being California and the TCEQ in the Texas Gulf Coast area, Axon is a very big client and we really look forward to a lot of future business with them. This is just an unfortunate timing And one reference that we were looking to get in the field that at least from what we told is not scheduled for the current turnaround Thanks, Yih.
Okay. So should we assume that you are still in touch with Exxon and There is some level of dialogue still ongoing with Exxon?
Of course. Yes, we're in touch with the team. And long term, Again, I mean Exxon is a big refiner. They have a lot of assets in the Gulf Coast region. We believe that there's Going to be in mission requirements there.
So, we actually see them as a very big and very important customer. And we truly value Your business with them down the road.
Okay, understood. I'll move on to sort of the associated Relationship with ZICO, at least initially the understanding was that the ZICO partnership Somewhat dependent on Exxon coming through and that deployment coming through for you guys. I know you've commented that The partnership with ZICO is still supportive, etcetera. But do you now need maybe sort of a new agreement with ZICO that is Independent a little bit of the Exxon qualifier or is that not necessary?
The Exxon passed the news on to us late Thursday last week. We do have a very good and close relationship with ZECO. And in fact, the first call I made was to the owner, just to explain The call we had and the next one, we're running out of time for their turnaround. He confirmed that that relationship I remain strong. There let me think.
The testing that we're doing is being done At the ZECO test facility, so our engineers and the ZECO engineers are working hand in hand. And In that testing, they're firing our burners with us. So, they are intimately familiar with The developments we've made for the technology and the capability of our technology, but also the Interactions we have with customers and of inquiries and quotations that we're sending out, those quotations are typically needing Obviously, the burners will be fabricated at ZECO and they will need testing that's scheduled in the ZECO test facilities. So, obviously, it's kind of an internal relationship, but they have knowledge of the traction and the market interest In our banners as well. So, the Exxon agreement was referenced As we said, our initial collaboration are up with Zego, but they are very much engaged with us.
I believe we are both looking forward To growing this business, just as an aside, I mentioned the water tube boiler burners as well. That boiler burn is being tested at the ZECO facility. So, they've expanded their product lines that we are Working with them on, at least for testing, they manufacture the burner in Tulsa, but also because the very big market for that boiler burner is in China, and they have a fabrication facility in fact a very active office in Shanghai. They're actually fabricating a twin burner for us over there. So, we have ongoing and expanding engagements with ZECO.
Okay. Understood. And then maybe just one last one for me. With respect to the China opportunity, Is expecting any deployments or revenues from China in 2021 A bit aggressive or is that still possible?
It's still possible, Amit. As we said, The COVID travel restrictions have persisted much longer and Much more strongly regarding travel to China than we ever expected. We do want to make sure primarily that we protect our IP. And so, where we do make our first sales, we want to make sure that we do those Or select those customers carefully. And I do want to make sure that Manny Mendez, the ClearSign President in Asia Guests to visit those sites and just to make sure that we are installing these burners for the first units into the right facilities.
And because of that caution, it's possible we'll get some sales this year, but I really want to prioritize safeguarding our IP Oh, just rushing to make a sale. I know everyone's waiting for a sale, but we've really got to look at the long term business. So I guess the short answer is, I mean, it's possible, but it's I'm certainly not wanting to give an impression that it should be expected.
I'll take my other questions offline, Jim. That's all I have for now. Thank you.
Thank you, Amit.
Our next question comes from Jeff Fine Glass, a Private Investor.
Hi, Jim. I think you just touched on this, I just want
to follow-up with it. Given the news from Exxon and their delay, do you think that this has forwarded or any way reversed any of the
I mean, Jeff, the short answer is no. But let me give a little bit of background. I mean, Obviously, we're very disappointed to hear from Exxon, and we're looking forward to I think, as Ben has demonstrated. But as we we need to take a step back and look at what this really means in the big picture of our And the reality is that we continue to execute the strategy that we started when I first joined ClearSign back in early 2019, and That was develop a technology that would make it easy to use and easy to incorporate in our customers, Our refineries and their business and then to engage with collaborative partners who are well established in the industry to provide A channel to market and help us conduct our business. And that has not changed.
I don't want to belittle the disappointments, but the Exxon asking us to put the testing on hold Affects the timing of one installation. The bigger outcome is through the engagement. As I mentioned, we have accelerated the development of our process burner technology to the point that it meets virtually all the refinery needs And matches the operation of regular burners. And in addition to that, of course, we've maintained Our NOx control and the value we can offer to enable our customers to avoid having to install SCRs. Our first super major installation, when we're talking of references, It's installed and ready to be started up in Europe.
I'm not aware of A single comment from customers or for that matter of fact, anyone in the industry regarding the ExxonMobil Request to put our testing on hold, what we have seen is a notable uptick in customer engagement based on the Operating capabilities that we've been able to develop for our process burner over the past few months. Thank you, Jeff.
Our next question will come from Robert Harvey, a Private Investor.
Hi, Jim. Thank you for your earlier Comments and sorry that you had to deal with the 2 big issues you had in 1 quarter here. Can you say a little bit more about the demonstration that Exxon has to use the language put on hold? This was going to be this is not further testing at the ZECO facility. This was to be A partial install or something at an Exxon facility.
I mean like what additional evidence did they need? And it just seems Surprising that I mean, I believe that earlier we're talking about an installation possibly At one of the refineries in 2021 that was delayed to have further testing to demonstrate broader capability. But how can it be a surprise that suddenly the end of August and they didn't have the data they needed? I mean, it sounds like with ZECO, you demonstrated all the capabilities that they needed. I mean, is this the hurricane that has like Switched manpower at Exxon to Baton Rouge from Baytown or it just It seems like suddenly the deadline snuck up.
I mean these things are done very carefully with long lead times. I just I'm having a problem understanding this was suddenly a surprise and put on hold Means that they're coming back to do it, what, in Jan of 'twenty three? Or like what can you say about what you think their
Thanks for the question. I'm not going to present to it's not my place to try and speculate as to Exxon's thinking. What we know We were looking forward to demonstrating these burners. The operating criteria that I went through, We believe met all of the requirements. We were looking we expected on the call that we were going to be able to arrange for That final witness and hopefully for the how to transport the burners down to site, we're expected to talk about logistics.
We were extremely surprised when they asked us to put the testing on hold. I don't believe the details were from our side. There is a I'm expecting a little bit here. There is a lot of engineering that goes into a turnaround that obviously It takes some time. And if they there's a time window that that you have to commit.
And we would just hold that that time window had passed.
Okay, got it. In terms of emissions requirements, and you mentioned the California Requirements for refineries and the Texas requirements and I'm just there's an awful lot of talk and effort and so on going on in responding to Climate change, it's in the air. And my understanding that nitrous oxide is 300 times more damaging To the environment than carbon dioxide, if you had extra funds, is there lobbying If you would do and or are there more regulations coming from others or whatever? What can pressure
I could go on at length. I think to be honest, we all care about the environment. We all want, We'd all like things to move faster in that regard. As a burner manufacturer, We try and solve the need. We have customers that need our products to meet The emissions requirements and we believe what we have here in ClearSign is a very special opportunity to enable them to do that In a very cost effective manner, I think There's always politics, but I really need to stay focused on our customers, to be honest.
We're very aware of the regulations. We share information with the regulators because that helps us understand what they're looking at. We think it helps them improve their plans. So we have to engage with them. As we have on the world oil project, that was an active But from my side, running the business, I'm especially appreciating that at the end of the day, the oil refineries are our customers.
Our goal is to help them meet their needs and to be good environmental stewards in the most efficient and effective ways that they can.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from Robert Kacheg with Las Colinas Capital Management.
Hi, Jen. I'm going to ask you something about these process heaters. If we were coming to a customer with a 10 foot flame To replace their 2 inches flame, I would think you'd need to redesign the heater. But we're coming to them with a 2 inch flame from what I understand are many, many feet, I don't know if it's 10 feet or not, but it's a considerably large I mean, as far as any kind of design changes goes, you see where I'm going with this that Yes. Just to a product should be easier to fit, just to me in my little brain.
Yes. Bob, no, you are right on the money. There's 2 big advantages that ClearSign burners, especially ClearSign process burners offer into the market. And we tend to we do talk a lot and very rightly so, we talk a lot about NOx emissions. But the other attribute is our flames are significantly smaller.
They're They're not 2 inches, but they are significantly shorter than the flames of traditional low and ultra low NOx burners. And the flames of those additional burners do cause problems because when the flames are long, they overheat the inside services of the heater. And the result is that the operator has to turn the firing rate down to avoid damaging their equipment. So, if you have a situation where, for example, the heaters we're talking about are a crude charge heater, which restricts the flow to an entire refinery. If the throughput of those heaters has to be turned down, it reduces the capacity of that refinery to make products.
So the other advantage that we have in having much more or much more confined flames Is that we can actually go back and fit our technology into those heaters, usually improve the NOx emissions. But more importantly for those refiners is we can actually great or enable them to increase the firing rates and the throughput Of those heaters. So that has a very immediate obviously, the value for refineries is very easy to calculate In those circumstances, but Bob, to your point, that is exactly a very real opportunity for us. And one that we are we do have A significant traction on. So we are we're talking to customers not just about NOx emissions, but we are talking about throughput increases In addition to that.
Okay. And kind of following with that same line of thinking, this shipment that just went to Europe For the other supermajor, they're going to be operating one of these burners. I assume since you and I talked before about each one of these designs of these heaters can be 3 burners, 4 burners, Whatever and then the configuration. Are they going to put that one burner With other burners in the heater to that's going to be next to it, I mean, I don't understand how they would, I don't understand how they would operate that. It doesn't seem like you'd really be getting real information if it's combined with
I can't Bob, we have we're not allowed to disclose the details of our customers' equipment. So, let me talk in general terms. There are certainly, there are there's what we call cabin heaters, which are square boxes, And then, vertical cylindrical heaters, as the name suggests, are basically upright cans. Those vertical cylindrical heaters have burners arranged Five burners, 3 burners, and the very small ones have a single burner in them. Okay.
Based on that, this is we are supplying the complete burner for this heater. So it is a very small heater in Europe that this burner is going to. But it will enable the customer to get a very good appreciation for what our burners can do. It will not be mixed
And then kind of again going on the same line of thinking, When you made these installations at these newest customers on the West Coast, I think you call it the transportation And storage customer. In that case, the configuration of the burners that you were putting in Was replacing other burners with basically the same configuration. So there really wasn't a big Engineering task for them to do. Is that correct?
That's correct. And that goes back to Our strategy right from the start, the objective being that we need to develop our technology to the point that it is Easy to deploy. And in terms of functionality and putting into a heater, it just plugs right into the hole Of the old existing burner that cuts down the engineering cost and it makes the turnarounds very simple. So Those burners just we dropped all the California boiler team dropped the old burners out, plugged the new burners in, I reconnected the fuel gas piping. It has some minor modifications on the control system for some different Unrelated details, I just fired them up.
So, it's a very easy like for like change out. Right.
And could you give us in a sense on this call, it seemed like everybody was Very excited about the name ExxonMobil and that kind of accomplishment. Could you just aside from that, could you just kind of give us some idea of pipeline for Inquiries or however you want to characterize it, whatever you're comfortable with as far as for burners For that part of the business?
Yes. Bob, this is something that we watch and No, are very encouraged about. Just by their nature, We can't no, we don't control our customers. So I really can't go into names and dates. I can say that we have customers that we engage with that range from No.
Global supermajors through to smaller local refineries And some national scale refineries still with multiple heaters. The applications include NOx reduction And capacity expansion. So it's a growing pipeline, Bob. I really, Unfortunately, I can't go into details just because it is so speculative and I don't want to be misleading.
No, no, I understand that. I'm just trying Everything was laser focused on this big name at Sun Mobile and all of a sudden that goes poof. So I'm just saying that there has to be other business out there. And I would imagine, I think you've alluded to in past conversations that just the fact that we were able to do this demonstration For that company, open the door to a lot more inquiry. Am I right in that?
I think what's happened is we've used ExxonMobil's name To really describe the project, I think the more accurately, we recorded the process burner development projects. And what the industry has been watching is the capabilities and the performance that we've been able to achieve, Because we're actively talking to our customers and the industry experts. So as we've been able to improve and achieve this performance by process burners, That's the news that we are passing on and that's what's leading to the interest and engagement that we're getting. So, whilst we have the Exxon name associated with it, because it's what everyone recognized, I think the reality in terms of the actual benefits And where we are what we need to refer to as the process burner development project.
And then over on the California boiler, I suppose that the 500 horsepower, is that like a bigger portion of the market compared to the smaller 125? So now we Have a larger market to address, is that fair to say?
Yes. And About the key really the key to that 500 size and up is, the San Joaquin Valley is One region to formalize their NOx emission regulations revamp that was done Quite recently, but they used the 500 horsepower, the NOx emission requirement dropped down to 2.5 PPM At that 500 horsepower size and above. So, that puts us in a very special position, Now, obviously, it should be success in this demonstration, but we obviously believe that that's to be expected. If we can do that, we are in a very unique position. And the only alternative that we're aware of Is for customers to put a selective catalytic reduction unit on their boilers, which if you think of a Food processing plant or something of that nature, going to the extra complexity, one, the cost of installing such piece of equipment and then maintaining ammonia And handling the deliveries, that is extremely burdensome.
So we really believe that we have an extraordinary value At that 500 horsepower and above. So that's one of the reasons that we've really picked that size. In addition, California boiler have a ventral boiler of that size Now we can work together to fit this burner into and then to deploy into the field to give customers firsthand experience using that burner.
Yes. Thank you. I was going to say one other thing maybe to connect the dots From what I understand, relationship with ZECO is connecting both the process printers And also potentially now with the water tube because they're both because they're in both of those businesses, but they're not in the fire tube. Is that right?
Yes. We're in ongoing discussions With ZECO regarding the high tube burner, but that's that opportunity for us to test there and have ZECO fabricate that burner is really based on the is also the as a 5 gs boiler burners, we have a formal agreement in place and I'm very pleased with the agreement in place with California Boiler.
Our next question comes from Marshall Crowe, a Private Investor.
Yes. Can you hear me?
Hi, Marshall. Yes, we can.
Hi, hi, Ash. Yes, you had mentioned earlier, I believe it was the World Oil facility that
a correction had to be made because it started up cold, The burner started up cold
and so you had to go in and you will have to make repairs, I believe, or readjusted. Is that right? Are you familiar with what I'm speaking of?
Yes, I am. There was a
I'm just wondering how often that happens.
This is A one off. There's basically a couple of valves in the control system, just the way it was configured that didn't fire at the right time. And it led to some minor damage, but damage that we just want to take the opportunity to repair. So this is not a not normal. This is just one of those one off things That happens.
Okay. All right. Very good. Well, all the best going forward. Looking forward to
Tomorrow. Thank you. All right. Thanks, Marshall.
This concludes our question and answer session. I'd like to turn the call back over to Jim Deller for any closing remarks.
Thank you very much. This concludes the investor update call for the Q2 2021. I look forward to speaking to you all in the future.
The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now