Q & A with William Choi

Here’s our brief Q & A with Choi; a more comprehensive article on CB Williams and Catalate™ will appear in an upcoming edition.

In a nutshell, what does CB Williams Energy Group do?

Our primary focus is the development and commercialization of Catalate^TM, a treatment process for all forms of liquid energy. Our most recent testing on fuel resulted in increased efficiencies of up to five percent, and decreased emissions of up to 35 percent, depending on the application.

These early results are extremely promising. At a time when energy efficiency and emissions reductions are not only environmental, but business, imperatives, Catalate™ could help to alleviate the impacts of fuel consumption. It’s very exciting.

What exactly is the Catalate™ treatment process?

Catalate™ is a disruptive photocatalytic laser technology. While we’re focusing right now on fuel since it requires more immediate care, testing has demonstrated very positive outcomes for water, where we have had some cutting edge discoveries. When applied to liquid energy used by large industrial users of water and fuel, we see increased efficiencies and decreased emissions.

Our first product release, the Catalate Amplifier^TM, is a versatile, non-invasive 100% chemical-free inline treatment system, developed in May 2008. We believe the Catalate Amplifer™ is the next big clean-tech innovation on the global horizon. Because the Amplifier can be installed alongside existing infrastructure, it will provide a low-cost solution for industrial users faced with legislative pressures to decrease emissions and increase efficiencies. The efficiencies and emissions reductions for large final emitters could be huge.

Sounds too good to be true…. What makes you so confident this technology works?

I’ve seen it work for decades in my family’s seafood processing business.

My parents started a seafood processing company in Vancouver in the early 1980s. My mother, who is Korean-Japanese, was a pioneer in exporting shellfish to Japan. She was introduced to Saito-san, the inventor of a revolutionary technology that could improve the quality of our urchins (now known as Catalate™), and she decided to give it a try.

Working with Saito-san, my mother would apply the “Catalate concentrate” in the process where fish were ‘bathed’ midway through production. The end result was superior taste quality, longer shelf life, and overall better product integrity. Slowly but surely, we had become the largest processor in North America and the highest-demand Canadian product in Japan. My parents would refer to the concentrate as ‘our secret weapon’. As a result, the company’s success was due to its overall superior product quality, which is largely attributable to Catalate.

So I’ve seen it work wonders over the years, and our early tests indicate we can expect the same results for fuel and other applications. Everyone who joins our team, who are highly skilled and once skeptics, quickly becomes convinced of Catalate’s promise. That’s the power of CB Williams technology.

CB Williams Energy Group is in its infancy – where exactly are you with development of the technology?

Well, we have proof of concept, and have developed two prototypes which we are using for testing in Seoul, Korea and Ontario, Canada. Presently, we are focused on pre-commercialization validation and testing in both countries and are exploring government partnership and funding opportunities for this development stage, with a view to going to market in late 2011.

Can you give us a glimpse of CB Williams’ implementation strategy?

Without giving too much away, our fundamental principle is to do good in the world, as contrived as that may sound. We have a product that can create significant environmental gains in the consumption of fuel – and that’s just for starters. Once we complete our final testing and validation, our core strategy is to save the world one business at a time. Catalate™ offers a simple and straightforward sustainability solution for companies who are otherwise facing enormous costs – not to mention social pressures - for meeting their environmental and emissions requirements. And of course, along the way we are looking for investors who share our values…

In closing, a few personal questions. What do you like best about what you do?

First, I love our people. We are like family and that runs deep in the CB Williams culture. Secondly, the Catalate™ technology is so versatile, and the potential so vast. It spans all industries who are users of water and fuel. Above all, I love that we are working on something that could have an incredibly positive impact on the future. For me, that’s incredible, and humbling, and very motivating.

Can you share with us your guiding principle in everyday life?

Give hope to people and everyone around you.

What is your yardstick of personal success?

As long as you are moving forward with action, you are always succeeding. There is no such thing as failure, mistakes or delays, they are only events.