The chairman and president of the Export-Import Bank of the United States was in Orange County this month to get an update on a Newport Beach-based company’s large-scale project to convert methane gas into clean energy at one of the world’s most notorious garbage dumps.
It was Fred Hochberg’s first visit to FirmGreen Inc.’s headquarters since the company completed the project at the mountainous Jardim Gramacho dump in Brazil, which holds the potential to produce the equivalent of 22 million gasoline gallons of compressed natural gas annually and enough energy to power 41,700 homes.
The company partnered with Petroleo Brasileiro SA and Gás Verde SA, which received a $48.6 million loan from the Export-Import bank—the U.S.’ official export credit agency—to help fund the Novo Gramacho Landfill Gas Project.
The bank’s mission is to help finance the “export of U.S. goods and services to international markets.”
“If financing is a stumbling block, we will find a way,” Hochberg told the Business Journal. “We don’t want anybody to lose a sale.”
The loan helped create 165 U.S. fabrication jobs, 275 construction jobs and 27 permanent positions.
“Without the Export-Import bank funding for our Brazilian clients, the world’s largest biogas refinery would exist only in my dreams,” said FirmGreen Chief Executive Steve Wilburn.
The 30-year project is valued at more than $100 million, with FirmGreen in line for a third of the deal.
Equipment Madness
Fountain Valley-based networking equipment maker D-Link Systems Inc. has put its own spin on March Madness.
The company established a bracket challenge pitting the world’s most life-changing technologies, old versus new. Contestants pick the winners for a shot to win an Xbox One with the NBA 2K Game, a D-Link Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router, or a D-Link Pan & Tilt Day/Night Network Camera.
Participants’ brackets will be scored against the D-Link Master Bracket that’s posted on the company’s website.
The Gadget Madness winner will be announced April 7.
Aerospace Event
Several Orange County technology companies this week will participate in the world’s only expo dedicated to onboard aerospace electronics.
Meggitt Sensing Systems, which opened a 190,000-square-foot factory and office in Irvine last year, and Newport Beach-based MSC Software Corp. will be among the 150 exhibitors at Space Tech Expo 2014 at the Long Beach Convention Center this week.
U.K.-based Meggitt’s Irvine unit specializes in making and testing sensors for the aerospace, military, automotive and industrial industries.
MSC is considered an industry pioneer that developed simulation software that helped the Apollo 11 spacecraft land on the moon.
Products and technologies that will be at the conference, which is from April 1 to 3, include rocket materials and space suits, among other things.
