How the DoD Went Green

Ok, so I’m an Internet troll… I admit it.

I dedicate at least a few minutes of my usually hectic day to sitting in front of my computer, looking for ways to agitate people who are already agitated.

Call it a guilty pleasure — but given such a powerful tool that seems to have been designed specifically for the act of anonymous heckling, I think I’m due my share of amusement.

One of my favorite targets for this little pastime of mine is the Huffington Post.

It’s not because Huff readers are among the most liberal out there on the net, but because (and this may have something to do with their political leanings) they seem to be the easiest to get riled up.

So when it comes to issues like the environment or where our energy comes from, I am guilty of stirring the pot a little via some well-placed comments on articles commenting on the dangers of fracking or the virtues of renewables.

But the reality of it is, despite what seems to be an ever-expanding bubble of outrage, the greenies really have less and less to worry about.

Welcome to the DoD: We Burn More Fuel Than Anyone

A perfect example of what I mean comes from a headline I read just this morning.

A small company based in Montreal installed a device called a “Plasma Arc Waste Destruction System” — or PAWDS for short — on the U.S. Navy’s aircraft carrier, John F. Kennedy.

I know it sounds a bit dramatic, as anything related to military tends to be, but in fact, this system marks a major leap forward not just in the technological sense but in the ideological sense as well.

You see, the military has never been a particularly environmentally oriented organization.

When it was setting off thermonuclear weapons and wiping out entire island chains just to see if it could do it, it was dumping its old gear — including jet planes and helicopters — into the oceans right along with fuel and ordnance.

It also tends to burn a lot of fuel. Although its biggest ships have been nuclear-powered for decades (a green-ish move according to some, and less so according to others), the vast majority of its smaller vessels are still running either on diesel or, in the case of its jet turbine-powered craft, aviation fuel.

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Boiling it all down to per-capita figures, the U.S. Department of Defense burns 10 times as much fuel per person as China… and 30 times that of the average resident of the continent of Africa.

As early as 2006, the Defense Energy Support Center reported selling $13 billion worth of fuel to the DoD — more than half going just to feed the Air Force’s thirst.

Turning Garbage into Nothing. At All.

So when I found out that the Navy had installed this high-tech waste-disposal system onboard one of its biggest assets, I knew a major shift was underway.

And no, this isn’t just some incinerator with a fancy name cobbled together by some Pentagon think tank.

What this device does (which the military has never been known to care about doing) is completely remove all outward traces of contamination after waste material has been processed.

That means no smoke, no chemical waste… nothing, in fact, to put into the water and forget about.

The machine swallows up paper, plastics, food, oily rags, as well as waste oil and any combination of the aforementioned. Then it powders the material and uses ultra-hot plasma to completely disassociate the waste on a molecular level.

This leaves waste gases, of course, but even these are quenched and sterilized before being exhausted into the atmosphere as harmless, inert by-products.

No contaminants, no poisons, no impact on the environment. Everything going back into the air or water after this machine is done is harmlessly reabsorbed into the ecosystem.

Developed in a partnership between the manufacturer and the U.S. Department of Defense, the PAWDS was specially designed to be fitted into all of the Gerald R. Ford-class supercarriers — including the JFK.

Each unit is capable of digesting almost 500 lbs. of waste material per hour — which means that our seas and oceans are saved the trouble of absorbing six tons of waste per day for every PAWDS installed.

The company I’m talking about, much like its machines, has a very dramatic name. I suppose that’s one of the reasons the DoD likes it so much.

A Small Partner; A Big Deal

Called PyroGenesis Inc. (TSX-V: PYR), its entire product line relies on plasma technology as either a waste disposal tool or for cutting and metallurgy.

It is in waste disposal, however, that the company is sure to make the biggest splash. Its largest waste disposal systems are capable of destroying more than 250 tons of trash per day — once again sparing the environment untold contaminants over the course of their operational life.

Despite its big-name client list, PyroGenesis is still a development-stage firm with great upside potential.

Not only is its plasma technology highly varied, but it’s becoming more and more common today in all of its applications.

I also feel obligated to mention that the stock is trading not too far off 52-week lows.

At less than $40 million market cap, and with the biggest Navy in history as a client, there is a long way to go before the momentum peters out on this one.

Check it out and make up your own mind, but if you like what you see, this is only scratching the surface.

My colleague Alex Koyfman, editor of the Penny Stock Millionaire investment advisory, has figured out a way to separate today’s most prospective small and microcap companies from the hordes of underperforming firms.

PyroGenesis, in fact, was one of his finds — but there is plenty more where that came from.

To get his recently published report detailing this rare breed of tech companies, and to hear the real stories of what these investments have done for everyday people just like you, click here.

In the meantime, I’m going to see what my friends at the Huffington Post are up to.

Yours in wealth,

Brian Hicks

Brian is a founding member and President of Angel Publishing and investment director for the income and dividend newsletter The Wealth Advisory. He writes about general investment strategies for Tech Investing Daily, Wealth Daily and Energy & Capital. Known as the “original bull on America,” Brian is also the author of the 2008 book, Profit from the Peak: The End of Oil and the Greatest Investment Event of the Century. In addition to writing about the economy, investments and politics, Brian is also a frequent guest on CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox and countless radio shows. For more on Brian, take a look at his editor’s page.