Ideas Become Reality
This is the second chapter in a trilogy honoring Nu:ionic Technologies’ co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Jim Tranquilla. In July, Nu:ionic announced that Dr. Tranquilla has transitioned to a part-time Strategic Technology Advisor role. This planned transition allows Jim to continue contributing his valuable expertise while moving into a more flexible arrangement.
In Chapter I, we came to know this remarkable person on a personal and professional level by exploring his childhood, education, academic, technological, and entrepreneurial achievements. In case you missed Part I of The Tranquilla Trilogy: Honoring Dr. Tranquilla, find it here.
In this edition, we’ll see how Jim’s ideas are transformed from the drawing board to real life applications in the Andes Mountains ore mines, Kuwaiti oilfields, Canadian shipyards, and NASA’s space center.
Let the adventure continue!
PERU: Mine-full Solutions at 15,000 Feet
In the late 90’s, Jim successfully designed, built, commissioned and put into operation the world’s first microwave pyrolysis plant. This innovative process removes arsenic and sulfur from arsenical gold/silver (arsenopyrite) ores in an environmentally clean manner.
The plant, built in Jim’s EMR Microwave Technology’s Fredericton facility, operated as a pilot and demonstration site for testing several different mineral ore types, including arsenopyrite.
Removing arsenopyrite was of keen interest to a Peruvian mining company, Minera Ares Arcata which, in 2003, purchased the pilot plant from Jim. Jim and team dismantled and shipped the equipment to Lima, Peru. Shortly after, the team flew to Arequipa to re-assemble the plant.
Upon arriving in Peru, the team hopped into Land Rovers and began a two-day trek up the Andes Mountains to the mine located at 15,000 feet (about half the cruising altitude of a commercial jet).
The climb itself was dangerous but adding to the stress was concern about running into members of a guerrilla group, The Shining Path (a communist Party of Peru guerilla group), who occupied the area in the 1990’s. The terrorists often attacked the mine camps to obtain explosives (mining operations stockpile large amounts of dynamite).
The Minera site had a history of attacks. To provide security and deter the rebels, the Peruvian Army re-took the site and established an army outpost. Yet, just three weeks prior to the team’s arrival, terrorists attacked the camp and successfully stole explosives, gold, silver, and killed three people.
Despite the dangerous and harsh conditions (daily snowfalls and frigid temperatures), Jim and team remained safe during the project. The plant was successfully reconstructed in 2003/2004 and commissioned in November 2004.
KUWAIT: Cleaning Up War-Ridden Oil Fields
At the end of Operation Desert Storm (the First Gulf War) in 1991, the retreating Iraqi forces blew up and set fire to more than 700 oil wells, resulting in about one billion barrels of burning oil. When the fires were extinguished, what was left was a landscape of oil lakes and oil-saturated sand, and millions of pieces of buried unexploded munitions. Most of the liquid oil was quickly pumped out of the lakes, however an estimated 25 to 40 million barrels soaked into the desert, and 11 million barrels ultimately ended up in the Persian Gulf.
To head off the ecological disaster, Jim recruited and led an international consortium of experts from Canada, USA, and England to advance a proposal to the Government of Kuwait for the de-mining and remediation of the massive contamination of the Kuwaiti oilfields. This included the design and engineering of large-scale systems to be deployed in harsh desert environments.
With the smell of burning oil in the air, temperatures of +55°C, and the knowledge that millions of undetonated explosives lay below the lakes of black gold, Jim and his team stepped onto the oil-soaked desert to gather soil samples in five-gallon buckets. The samples were shipped back to Canada where the microwave properties could be determined and used in the design of the equipment to effectively separate (and recover) the oil from the sand.
At first, the Kuwaiti Government seemed sincere with their intentions to remedy the situation yet when it came time for action, they were apathetic. The lethal path the oil was taking toward the Persian Gulf was of no concern. In their calculation, the cost of remediation would be far greater than the cost of simply replacing the oil with new production.
Although the Kuwaitis chose not to implement the process, similar technology has been used by others on a much smaller scale for remediation of oil and fuel spills.
During his visit, Jim saw the “Highway of Death”. Originally, a six-lane road connecting Kuwait to Iraq, it became the highway to hell littered with remnants of trucks, cars, buses, and convoys filled with stolen goods from retreating Iraqis. Searing temperatures on the highway were compounded due to Uranium radiation; depleted uranium used in armor piercing munitions, which vaporized on impact, leaving everything contaminated with radiation.
CANADA: Supersleuth to the Military
As a consultant to government agencies, Jim had Top Secret Canadian and NATO clearances. While working with the Canadian Patrol Frigate program, he applied his electromagnetic expertise to analyze, test and commission stealth technology to ensure enemies were unable to detect military ships and submarines.
Pictured above is the HMCS Halifax, the lead ship in its class, which was started in 1986 and launched one year later at Saint John Shipbuilding where Jim was contracted as the EMI/C consultant. EMI/C stands for electromagnetic interference and compatibility, i.e., electronic stealth. During his contract, and while Halifax was under construction, he trained a technical crew of 200 on the systems. Meanwhile, at his Fredericton-based company, EMR Microwave Technology, several pieces of the ship’s equipment were tested and qualified.
SPACE: Navigating Out of this World
Not only was Jim’s expertise applied on Earth, but it also went out of this world! While at the University of New Brunswick (UNB), Jim formed a large research group which became heavily involved with industry (Magnavox) and government players (NASA, JPL, Geodetic Survey Canada) in the early development of antennas for Global Positioning Systems (GPS).
One very unusual application involved an antenna design as part of the navigation system for what became the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft. Of course, GPS is of no use on Mars (!), but to get to Mars, the spacecraft is first launched into earth’s orbit before being boosted toward its Mars destination. During this earth orbit, the spacecraft must be precisely located and “aimed”, and this is where GPS plays a role since receivers on the spacecraft can receive precise position information from the GPS satellites “overhead”. Jim’s UNB group designed an antenna that controlled the field of view from the GPS receiver, thus preventing interference from other signals.
As Jim in his humble way said, “I designed a hunk of metal that went to Mars.”
UPCOMING: Chapter III – The Final Chapter of the Trilogy
In the final chapter of The Tranquilla Trilogy, we’ll explore Jim’s involvement in co-founding Nu:ionic Technologies, highlight key innovation milestones and discuss current business opportunities using electrification to produce clean energy. We’ll also take a deeper dive into this Renaissance man’s personal interests and achievements and learn how Jim will continue to make waves.