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The SEA® approach to mercury capture is specifically tailored for each application to match a customer’s coal type and boiler configuration for optimal results.
−Removed: Our two-pronged solution consists of a front-end sorbent injected directly into the boiler in minimal amounts combined with a back-end sorbent injection solution to ensure maximum mercury capture.
+Added: Our two-pronged solution consists of a front-end additive(s) put on the coal or directly into the boiler in minimal amounts combined with a back-end sorbent injection solution to ensure maximum mercury capture.
We believe our two-part process uses fewer raw materials than other mercury capture systems and causes less disruption to plant operations.
−Removed: We believe our sorbent line, which is designed to meet or exceed the mercury mitigation requirements of our customers, offers superior performance and the lowest possible feed rates when compared to other solutions on the market.
+Added: We believe our additives and sorbents, which are designed to meet or exceed the mercury mitigation requirements of our customers, offer superior performance and the lowest possible feed rates when compared to other solutions on the market.
Our processes also preserve fly ash which can be sold and recycled for beneficial use.
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Ongoing research toward improved technology for mercury capture and rapid-response scientific support for emission or combustion issues as operations and regulations change.
−Removed: We are also developing new technologies to improve the capture rate and environmental concerns of processing rare earth elements (" REEs ").
+Added: We are in the process of developing and testing other business opportunities which include the extracting and processing of rare earth elements (REEs) in North America, remediation technologies for wastewater and coal ash from coal-fired power plants, as well as drinking water treatment technologies.
See “ Description of the Business -Additional Business Opportunities” below.
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that currently use our SEA technologies and buy product from us.
−Removed: We expect to continue to conduct numerous demonstrations on prospective customer units and make supply offerings throughout the rest of 2023 and thereafter.
Patent Enforcement
We believe that a significant percentage of coal-fired power plants in the United States have adopted and are infringing upon our two-part Sorbent Enhancement Additive (SEA®) process for mercury removal from coal-fired power plants.
−Removed: Beginning in 2019, we began to actively enforce its patent rights against unauthorized use of our patented technologies.
−Removed: We initiated our first patent litigation in July 2019 against four major owners and/or operators of coal-fired power plants in the United States and certain of their affiliates, along with certain other third parties in which we have claimed infringement of its patents related to its two-part process for mercury removal from coal-fired power plants.
−Removed: We subsequently entered into agreements with four of the major defendants.
−Removed: Litigation against the remaining parties is ongoing.
−Removed: We expect to pursue other infringers and have communicated our position to a significant number of them.
+Added: Beginning in 2019, we began to actively enforce our patent rights against unauthorized use of our patented technologies.
+Added: We initiated patent litigation in July 2019 against four major owners and/or operators of coal-fired power plants in the United States and certain of their affiliates, along with certain other third parties in which we have claimed infringement of its patents related to its two-part process for mercury removal from coal-fired power plants.
+Added: See Part I, Item 3.
+Added: “Legal Proceedings”.
+Added: We are in the process of pursuing various other infringers and have communicated our position to a significant number of them, which process is ongoing.
Although additional litigation may be necessary to enforce our intellectual property rights, we view this as a last resort.
Our goal and overall strategy is to convert infringers to our supply chain of sorbent products for mercury removal, or otherwise license our patents to them on a non-exclusive basis in connection with their respective coal-fired power plants.
−Removed: Other Markets for Our Emissions Technologies
−Removed: In May 2017, the European Union and seven of its member states ratified the Minamata Convention on Mercury, which triggered its entry into force with implementation starting in 2021.
+Added: Other Possible Markets for Our Emissions Technologies
+Added: In May 2017, the European Union and seven of its member states ratified the Minamata Convention on Mercury.
The Minamata Convention on Mercury is a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury.
−Removed: This Convention was a result of three years of meeting and negotiating, after which the text of the Convention was approved by delegates representing approximately 140 countries in January 2013 in Geneva and adopted and signed later that year in October 2013 by approximately 125 countries at a diplomatic conference held in Japan.
+Added: This Convention was a result of three years of meeting and negotiating, after which the text of the Convention was approved by delegates representing approximately 140 countries in January 2013 in Geneva.
+Added: As of September 2020, 123 countries have joined the Convention.
It is expected that over the next few decades, this international agreement will enhance the reduction of mercury pollution from the targeted activities responsible for the major release of mercury to the environment.
−Removed: In July 2017, the European Union, through the European Commission, adopted certain BREF standards for large coal-fired electric generating units.
−Removed: The BREFs are a series of reference documents covering certain industrial activities and provide descriptions of a range of industrial processes and their respective operating conditions and emission rates.
−Removed: Member states are required to take these documents into account when determining best available techniques.
−Removed: As a result of the EU’s adoption of these BREF conclusions, specific emissions limits are currently being developed.
−Removed: We previously attempted to pursue the European market and had entered into an agreement with a supplier in 2018 to allow them to commercialize our technology throughout Europe.
−Removed: Such agreement was terminated in 2020 and no revenues had been generated from such agreement prior to its termination.
−Removed: We intend to pursue the European market, although no assurance can be made that any such efforts will be successful.
−Removed: The European market, although significant, is not as large as the market in the U.S.
+Added: Specific emissions limits are being developed by the European Union, although the timing of any enactment of such is uncertain.
+Added: Any such regulations may lead to additional business opportunities for our mercury control technologies within the European Union although there are no such prospects at the present time.
With regard to business opportunities in China and other Asian countries, there currently exists no specific mandate for mercury capture that requires specific control technology.
Nevertheless, we are optimistic of the prospects for mercury emissions regulations in China and Southeast Asia in the coming years.
−Removed: It is estimated that China represents approximately 50% of the world’s electric production from coal compared to the United States which represents 14%.
−Removed: We are hopeful that as a result of the Minamata Convention, China as well as other countries will follow the U.S.
−Removed: in regulating mercury emissions.
−Removed: In April 2023, we entered into an exclusive agency agreement with an unrelated company located in Hong Kong pursuant to which such company has been appointed our exclusive agent in various countries located in Southeast Asia (including but not limited to Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam) to locate and solicit third parties in such territory interested in obtaining rights to use our technologies and purchasing product supply from us.
−Removed: There can be no assurance that we will be successful in obtaining any significant business in Southeast Asia from such arrangement.
Sales and Marketing
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Additional Business Opportunities
−Removed: We are also developing new technologies to improve the capture rate and environmental concerns of processing REEs.
−Removed: During the first quarter of 2021, we announced new technologies under development intended to improve the processing of REEs in North America.
−Removed: Such technologies were under development in conjunction with a collaboration with a third party and pursuant to a license and development agreement entered into in October 2019.
−Removed: In October 2022, such license and development agreement expired and has not been extended or renewed.
−Removed: Prior to expiration, such technologies were being evaluated and tested but had not yet been commercialized.
−Removed: We plan to evaluate and test other related technologies for the extracting of REEs from their solvent state which we have developed and do not involve any of the technologies subject to the expired license and development agreement.
−Removed: In tandem with our efforts in REEs, we have been exploring remediation technologies for wastewater and coal ash from coal-fired power plants, as well as water treatment.
+Added: We are in the process of developing and testing other business opportunities which include the extracting and processing of rare earth elements (REEs) in North America, remediation technologies for wastewater and coal ash from coal-fired power plants, as well as drinking water treatment technologies.
We believe the market for water treatment is large and significantly growing both in the United States and abroad.
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There can be no assurance that we will be successful in the development of these technologies.
−Removed: On January 31, 2023, we entered into a License and Supply Agreement with Dakin Holdings Ltd., a company incorporated in Barbados (“Dakin”), effective as of January 1, 2023 (the “Dakin Agreement”), pursuant to which Dakin has granted to the Company (i) a limited license to manufacture and produce for Dakin products comprising certain intellectual property owned by Dakin as described below (the “Dakin IP”), and (ii) an exclusive license to commercialize the Dakin IP in the United States.
−Removed: Dakin is a company owned and controlled by Richard MacPherson, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer and President.
−Removed: The Dakin IP consists of a proprietary compound of materials engineered to treat a boiler to improve the combustion process and thereby reduce overall emissions, while improving boiler efficiency during the combustion of all types of fuels at power plants.
+Added: We also maintain a license with respect to certain intellectual property owned by Dakin Holdings Ltd.
+Added: consisting of a proprietary compound of materials engineered to treat a boiler to improve the combustion process and thereby reduce overall emissions, while improving boiler efficiency during the combustion of all types of fuels at power plants (the “Dakin IP”).
We believe the Dakin IP can be an effective supplement to our core business of mercury emissions removal at coal-fired power plants and provide an additional revenue stream utilizing our present infrastructure.
−Removed: Nevertheless, there can be no assurance that the Dakin Agreement will lead to any significant revenues.
+Added: However, there can be no assurance that such license will lead to any significant revenues.
For additional information, see Part III, Item 13.
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Our major competitors in the U.S.
−Removed: and Canada include companies such as Advanced Emissions Solutions, Inc., Cabot Corporation, Calgon Carbon Corporation, and Nalco Company.
+Added: and Canada include companies such as Arq, Inc.
+Added: (formerly Advanced Emissions Solutions, Inc.), Norit Activated Carbon, Calgon Carbon Corporation, and Nalco Company.
Some of these companies employ large sales staff and are well positioned in the market.
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The price and availability of natural gas can also influence the amount of generation provided by coal-fired plants.
−Removed: We currently have 11 full-time employees.
+Added: We currently have 9 full-time and 2 part-time employees.
Our employees are not represented by labor unions.
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Compared sentence by sentence after normalising whitespace, quotation marks, case and digits, so re-formatting and restated figures do not read as changed language. Wording changes appear as one removal and one addition. The current filing and the prior one are authoritative.