THE GREAT CATFISH : HELIOS RUEHLS SCIENCE REPORT NO.1

THE GREAT NAMAZU, RETIRED JAPANESE GIANT CATFISH DEMIGOD, ANALYST FOR AMERICAN ADMIRALTY BOOKS, AND CONSULTANT TO HELIOS RUEHLS INC. SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT FIRM

Greetings Bipeds! 

 As some of you may have noted over the past few months the American Admiralty Books Blog has had some pains. First the primary and automatic site advertising program was pulled without explanation. Then the home state of our corporation elected a democrat for governor who immediately set out to tax the Internet. Within days of that election Amazon, for which we were a commissioned portal, eliminated contracts with all portals in our home state. This site once stripped of all revenues was reduced to a volunteer effort by certain interested members of the American Admiralty Information System network. I have continued to write for the site but at a much lower level of effort than previously. Once again since going out of the demigod business I had to seek employment and found such with a company known as Helios Ruehls, Inc. Helios Ruehls, Inc. is a Louisiana based scientific research and development firm that specializes in projects "above the Newtonian / Eculidian Line", projects particularly in optical physics, and the electromagnetic spectrum involving the physics and math associated with "Complexity Theory". My previous publications on such subjects in these pages helped me secure the position. So being once again gainfully employed, I am eating with regularity again and presented with some new opportunities.

 Helios Ruehls, Inc. has asked me as part of my new duties to report via these pages on scientific subjects that the company has an interest in, especially subjects that have a likely application or impact on technologies in the maritime sector. American Admiralty Books seems a perfect venue for such missives having a large maritime orientated audience. In any event this assignment will bring me back into the pages of the American Admiralty Books Blog more often. Writers always like to get paid gigs. Below is my HELIOS RUEHLS SCIENCE REPORT NO.1  on Graphene-oxide membranes (GOMs). "GOMs are going to have a big impact on shipboard fresh water making and desalinization , and something of a temporary impeding effect of the Helios Ruehls Fractal Lens Project at least in terms of grant fund competition. . 

NAMAZU'S HELIOS RUEHLS SCIENTIFIC REPORT NO.1: GOMs  

 New research indicates that the substance known as "graphene"can filter common salts from water indicating a probability of applications in desalination technology. Helios Rueh;'s Fractal Lens project offers potential savings in desalinization processes which currently require great amounts of heat, The fractal lens ,once developed, would be a cheap heat producer. By contrast graphene-oxide "membranes" appear to be able to produce fresh water from sea water without the need for heat. There should be room for both technologies in the near term in the desalinization industry. Existing large desalinization plants represent big investments. Fractal lens heat production would not require replacement of the greater part of most existing plants, just substitution of the heat generating element with the fractal lens heat systems which produce enormous BTUs of heat at no cost for fuel. By contrast the findings that graphene -oxide membranes can eliminate salts from water coming out of the University of Manchester labs and recently published in the scientific journal NATURE NANOTECHNOLOGY are simply lab test findings and not a developed technology.

  While the Fractal lens is as yet to appear in physical form when it does it will be a "plug and play" technology that enhances existing industrial technologies as a retrofitted device providing unprecedented fuel savings. Graphene-oxide membranes by contrast in the desalinization field require the development of a corresponding technology for application of the theoretical benefit. Assuming that such a technology is eventually developed that can produce fresh water in municipality water supply consumption quantities we see a probable two step evolution in desalinization. Assuming that the Fractal lens emerges in a timely manner from the lab we see existing and planned municipal water supply level plants adopting fractal lens technology, lowering operating costs and prolonging the operating life of the plant. 

 Assuming that graphene -oxide membrane water filtration technology is developed within the next twenty years to a point where it has utility in municipal water supply sized operations it could become the new standard of the industry for plants designed and planned sometime after 2037. In the maritime sector however, graphene-oxide membrane technology could bring "water making" capability to an entire range of working vessels presently thought too small for "water making". Below the 2,000 to 5,000 gross registered ton level in shipping, ships generally have only the fresh water they can carry in their potable water tanks, and when it's gone , it's gone. By contrast many large war ships and passenger cruise vessels have a limited capacity to produce fresh water. It is highly fuel consumptive but can supplement tanked supplies and make a big difference to "on scene endurance" for war ships and usually eliminate emergency port calls for water, or the implementation of highly unpopular with paying passengers, water conservation measures. If graphene -oxide membrane based "water making " technology can spread significant "water making " capability into the work boat fleet  it could be a significant improvement in "on scene endurance" for tugs on stand by duty , and the stand by offshore service vessels in the offshore oil industry among others. It could also be a safety feature for such vessels working in Third World offshore oil fields off the coasts of nations with unreliable maritime potable water supplies. 

 In short the latest news on graphene-oxide technology coming out of the University of Manchester does not alarm us in terms of any immediate competition for the fractal lens in the desalinization market, but it does announce another competitor for research grant funding for funds related to desalinization. We are on a parallel development path with these very different products. What has been recently reported about GOMS is literally a breakthrough. Graphene -oxide membranes developed at the National Graphene Institute have demonstrated their potential for filtering out small nanoparticles, organic molecules, and large salts. However prior to these recent announcements GOMs couldn't be used for sieving out common salts as needed in desalinization technologies. Prior research at Manchester indicated that if immersed in water graphene-oxide membranes tend to become swollen and pass through smaller salts. Now Manchester reports that they have learned how to control the pore size in the membrane so as to sieve out the common smaller salts of salty water and make it safe for human consumption. According to Manchester's Dr. Rahul Raveendran Nair"

 "Realization of scalable membranes with uniform pore size down to atomic scale is a significant step forward and will open new possibilities for improving the efficiency of desalinization technology"

 Desalinization technology seems poised to become a growth industry in that the UN reports that by 2025 14% of the World's population will encounter water scarcity. The graphene-oxide membrane technologies likely to emerge early on will probably be best suited for smaller scale water production being more of a filtering process than 'desalinization" as it has become traditionally understood in recent decades. Early on we think the graphene -oxide membrane technology will have a niche market  in land based desalinization. But we also anticipate that it could have a second early niche market in ship board "water making" especially aboard working vessels previously thought too small to support that capacity. Here in we find the opportunities for Helios Ruehls. We have unique capabilities to assist the graphene-oxide membrane developers in applying this technology to the work boat industry. This could be a unique contract research opportunity at some future point. In addition even if we never sell a research contract related to GOMs we will be tracking the progress of GOMs as a natural function of keeping tabs on the competitors for desalinization related research grants. As industry leaders emerge GOMS may be an interesting investment . In our next installment we will look at the graphene "industry" from an investors view point.

For Helios Ruehls, Inc.
Namazu, Great Catfish