Goldenberg Myers Oshenite SPI presentation

A High Quality Source for Calcium Carbonate
• Click to edit Master subtitle style
Where is Ocean Cay:
Distance from Ocean Cay to Nassau:
Distance from Ocean Cay to Port of Palm Beach:
Distance from Ocean Cay to Miami:
Distance from Ocean Cay to Ft. Lauderdale:
Distance from Ocean Cay to Freeport:
116.38 miles
106.96 miles
65.48 miles
73.91 miles
81.60 miles
Ocean Cay and the Oolitic Aragonite Banks
Ocean Cay Amenities
• Shipping Channel 40’ Draft
• Harbor – Panamax Vessels
• Small Harbor for Barges
• Ship Turning basin
• Harvesting facilities
• Housing
• Self Contained Power & Water
• Two Runways
Loading a Vessel
The History of Ocean Cay
95 Acre Island – 500 Square Mile Lease
•1970
•1971 to 1973
•1973 to 1984
•1984 to 2000
•2000 to 2009
•2009 to 2010
•2010, June 3rd to Present
Lerner Marine Labs of Bimini
Union Carbide
Dillingham Corp
Marcona Ocean Industries
AES / FP&L LNG Project
Ocean Cay Ltd / Sandy Cay Dev. Co Ltd
Sandy Cay Dev. Co Ltd
New Lease 25 years + 25 years
Ocean Cay – Oolitic Aragonite Banks
Bahamas oolitic sand deposits
(approximately 50 to 100 billion tons)
Straits of Florida
Great Bahama Bank oolitic sand deposits
within the Ocean Cay typical oolite shoals
(Lease area comprises 1 to 2 billion tons)
(500 sq miles: 30 miles by 17 miles)
Neil E. Sealey - “Bahamian Landscapes” - 1994
Great Bahama Bank
Environmental Analysis of Ocean Cay
Turrell, Hall & Associates Inc. Marine & Enviromental Consulting – April 2012
Aerial photo of Ocean Cay with historical dredging activities outlined.
Marine Environment
Harvesting Process
Before Dredging
After Dredging
The virgin landscape is devoid of benthic infauna (sea life) due to an environment more
conducive to picoplankton calcification. After removal, the cooler sea bottom is more
habitable by local infuana (sea life). Historic dredge areas prove out new sea life growth.
A Sustainable Resource
Aragonite Over-generation
Tide & Hurricanes
Florida
Ocean Cay
Nassau
Andros
Tongue of
the Ocean
Straits of
Florida
Loss to FL Straits
500,000 m3/annum
Aragonite Growth & Movement
Stunted by Ocean Level
Ocean surface
2012 Turrell
20’ to 25’ thick
1997 Robbins 15’ to 20’ thick
1960/70 Sealey
10’ to 15’ thick
Holocene Period – sedimented Aragonite
Whitings on the Great Bahama Bank
Satellite and Space Shuttle Imagery show Whitings since 1963
“Whitings”
Thought to be schools of fish disturbing the sandy bottom, WHITINGS are actually
epicellular precipitation of calcium carbonate induced by PHOTOSYNTHESIS in
blooms of Picoplankton, predominantly CYANOBACTERIA, that seasonally enter
the shallow waters around Ocean Cay mostly in Spring (April) and Fall (October).
L.L. Robbins ,K Yates, G Shinn, P. Blackwelder – Whitings to the Great
Bahama Bank: A microscopic solution to a macroscopic mystery –
Bahamas Journal of Science 10/96
Oolitic Aragonite Annual Generation
Robbins/Tao Calculation Great Bahama
Bank area
3.30E+09 square meters
Average CaCO3 in Whitings
10.6 grams per cubic meter of Whiting (+/- 4.5 grams variance)
One Square Mile
2.59E+06 square meters
Sandy Cay Lease Area (sq
miles)
In Lease Area:
Whitings
produce
266,000 mts
to
2,310,000 mts
per year
Sandy Cay as a percentage of GBB
1.29E+09 square meters
Potentially
39.2%
as high as: 60%
Production of Calcium
Carbonate on GBB
Low
Average
High
GBB CaCO3 production (grams/year)
6.80E+11 gr/yr
1.40E+12 gr/yr
3.90E+12 gr/yr
1,400,000 metric tons
3,900,000 metric tons
Metric Tons per year
500 sq miles
1.00E+06 grams/mt
680,000 metric tons
Relative to
the Whiting sightings.
Cross check Robbins/Tao formula
2.06E+02 gr/yr/m2
4.24E+02 gr/yr/m2
1.18E+03 gr/yr/m2
grams per year per square meter
205 gr/yr/m2
410 gr/yr/m2
1172 gr/yr/m2
Production of Calcium
Carbonate on Sandy Cay
Lease
Low
Average
High
Sandy Cay Lease (grams/year)
2.67E+11
5.49E+11
1.53E+12
2,310k to
1,530k metric tons
Metric Tons per year
1.00E+06 grams/mt
400 – 266k metric tons 830 – 550k metric tons
L.L. Robbins, Y. Tao, C.A. Evans – Temporal and spatial distribution of
whitings on Great Bahama Bank and a new lime mud budget – Geology:
October 1997.
“Whitings”
Continued Sustainability
Oolitic Aragonite is generated through the mineralization of Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
to Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3) within natural occurring Blooms of phytoplankton,
further picoplankton: specifically Cyanobacteria and unicellular green algea.
Photosynthesis drives the engine of both forms of carbon sequestration by
cyanobacteria:
1. Reducing CO2 to organic compounds at the same time producing Oxygen (O2)
through the Calvin-Benson-Bassham cycle.
2. Mineralizing CO2 to recalcitrant carbonates; Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3).
Cyanobacteria has a Carbon Dioxide Concentrating Mechanism (CCM), a biochemical
system that allows the cells to raise the concentration of CO2 at the site of the
carboxylating enzyme rubulose (RUBISCO) up to 1,000 times surrounding medium.
Cyanobacteria excretes organic polymeric substances to form extracellular formations.
These Exopolymeric substances (EPS) serve as a nucleation surface for mineralization.
Kamennaya, Ajo-Franklin, Northen and Jansson; October 2012;
“Cyanobacteria as Biocatalysts for Carbon Mineralization”
Picoplankton
Cyanobacteria
O2
Light
Water CO2
Light
Air
CO2
High pH
Alkalinity
H2O
Ocean
O2
c
Glucose and CaCO3
Amino Acids and Organic
compounds
EVIDENCE THAT OOLITIC ARAGONITE (CaCO3) IS PRECIPITATED IN THE WHITINGS:
1. Calcite and aragonite crystal size, shape, and Geochemistry (Loreau, 1982; Milliman et al., 1993).
2. The intimate association of carbonate crystals and cyanobacteria cells (Robbins et al., 1997).
3. Cell counts along transects of Whitings, where concentrations of planktonic cyanobacteria are double
and as much as 10 times higher inside than outside Whitings (Robbins et al., 1996 Thompson et al. 1997)
4. The amino acid content of the organic fraction of the Whitings (Robbins and Blackwelder, 1992).
L.L. Robbins, Y. Tao, C.A. Evans – Temporal and spatial distribution of
whitings on Great Bahama Bank and a new lime mud budget – Geology:
October 1997.
Cyanobacteria Biosequestration of Carbon
Light
“Ocean”
H2O
O2
Light Reactions
Releasing &
Gassing off
Oxygen
Photosphosphorylation
The Fuel
pH increase
High alkalinity/High Ca
High solubility of CO2
in water available
Carbon Sink
CO2 Fluxes
from Air to Water
Sugar, Amino Acids
And other Organic
Compounds.
Calvin
Cycle
CaCO3
Dual Carbon Fixing
RUSULTS OF RADIOCARBON ANALYSIS
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY – Dr. Glenn Norton
PRODUCT: Oshenite™ Ground, 0 Micron, BlOBASED CONTENT (%)
62%
Interpretation of ASTM D6866 - 11 Standard Test Methods for Determining the Bio
based Content of Solid, Liquid, and Gaseous Samples Using Radiocarbon Analysis
ASTM Method 6866 is a standard analytical test that is used to determine the exact percentage of a solid
liquid or gas that is derived from renewable sources. The test utilizes C14 analysis to determine the age of
the carbon in the material. C14 is a weakly radioactive isotope of carbon formed when solar radiation causes
some of the carbon in atmospheric CO2 to change from C12 to C14. When the CO2 is taken up and no
longer exposed to the atmosphere the C14 will decay back to C12. The rate of this decay is: 50% of the C14
will decay back to C12 every 5700 years (5000 year half-life). ASTM D6866 analysis measures the C14
content in a sample to determine ratio of carbon of recent origin to the total carbon in the sample. According
to Glen Norton of the USDA testing Laboratory at Iowa State University (Co-Author of ASTM 6866), carbon of
recent origin is defined as material containing carbon fixed in the last 3-5 years.
The results of the test are presented as % bio-based content. This terminology is used because up until the
analysis conducted on oolitic aragonite from Ocean Cay, the only sources of carbon fixation analyzed by this
program are plant based materials. The samples analyzed by the USDA testing lab indicated that 62% of the
carbon in the sample was fixed in the last 3 to 5 years.
The result indicates that the oolitic aragonite shoals at Ocean Cay are receiving new material and are a
renewable resource.
Carbon Sequestration
5,700 tons of Carbon/year
Air: Sea Carbon (CO2 ) Gas Fluxes in Whitings (Photosynthesis)
17,000 km2 of Whitings area/yr = a CO2 sequestration of 3.5 x 10-6 g carbon m-2 s-1
Average Tons of Carbon (CO2) sequestered to Organic Compounds via Photosynthesis
Monthly: 1.6 tons of CO2 uptake
Carbon -12 isotopes - lighter
Annual: 19.2 tons of CO2 uptake
Carbon (CO2 ) Calcification in Whitings (Mineralize CO2 to recalcitrant carbonates)
13-76 km2 of Whitings area/day/3m depth = a CO2 sequest of 4.2 x 10-3 g carbon m-3 hr-1
Average Tons of Carbon (CO2) sequestered to Inorganic Compounds via Mineralization
Monthly: 473 tons of CO2 uptake
Carbon -13 isotopes - heavier
Annual: 5,682 tons of CO2 uptake
Robbins, Yates; 2001; “Direct Measurement of CO2 Fluxes
in Marine Whitings”
Morphology of Oolitic Aragonite
Oolitic aragonite sands have high
intercrystalline porosity that
significantly enhances the reactivity of
the carbonate sorbent by exposing a
much greater surface area.
Oolitic Aragonite Composition
PERCENT BY WEIGHT
Minimum
CaCO3
MgCO3
SiO
Fe2O3
SO3
NaCl
SrO
Al2O3
94.00
0.50
0.02
0.008
0.10
0.06
0.30
0.02
Maximum
97.00
1.50
0.08
0.025
0.20
0.25
1.25
0.15
CaCO3
Differences between
Aragonite, Calcite and Dolomite
Although aragonite and calcite have the same chemical formula (CaCO3), each belongs to a
different crystal system and each has different physical and chemical properties. Dolomite is
similar in structure to calcite except that layers of calcium alternate with layers of magnesium.
Differences between these minerals include differences in density (aragonite 2.93; calcite 2.71;
and dolomite 2.8-2.9), solubility, buffering capacity, Zeta potential, crystal morphology, trace
element composition, surface area (oolites), and brightness.
Calcite vs. Aragonite
Test
Calcite/Limestone
Oolitic Aragonite
Specific Gravity
2.7
2.8
Mohs Hardness
3
3.5-4
Crystal Structure
Trigonal
Orthorhombic
Surface Area
.55 m2/g
1.82 m2/g
Zeta Potential
-1.01mV to 11.55mV
-33.85mV to -6.65mV
Crystallinity
Low
High
Microporosity
Low
Very High
Mined Calcium Carbonate
Oshenite®
U.S. Aragonite Enterprises
Company Overview
•
U.S. Aragonite Enterprises, LLC is the exclusive supplier of Oshenite®
(oolitic aragonite) to the plastic industry
•
Founded in 2011. Investors include owners of Ocean Cay, the natural
source of the mineral.
•
50% ownership in Oshenite Performance Processing, an Oshenite®
dedicated grinding facility
•
Been working for past 16 months with Bayshore Industrial to bring
Oshenite® master batches to market
•
USAE works with processors to promote and market Oshenite® to end
users, brand owners and stake holders
Sustainable
Performance Mineral for Plastics
•
•
•
•
•
Improves production: reduces temperatures and energy
Offers cost savings in all applications
Allows for down gauging
Replaces higher priced plastic resins at up to 50% loads
Unique Crystalline Structure, Zeta Potential, Purity and
Consistency allows for excellent dispersion and
significantly higher loading vs. mined minerals
Oshenite® Master batches
PE, PP, PS, Bio-based carriers
Film Grades
Rigid application Grades
Oshenite® MC (bacteria inhibiting)
Oshenite® Silver (2% TIO2)
Oshenite® White (5% TIO2)
Oshenite-High Performance
Current Product
Examples
Packaging Mfg’s / Brand Owners
Retailers / Stakeholders
• Your product is made with a sustainable and naturally
renewable resource
• Your product is made with a FDA compliant material
• Your product reduces dependence on fossil fuel resins
• Your product uses an ultra-pure mineral
• Your product addresses bacteria related issues
Branding Opportunities
For more information about Oshenite™:
Marc Goldenberg
978-745-8876
marc@usaragonite.com
Steve Thomas
443-617-7187
steve@usaragonite.com
THANK YOU