Nova Scotia’s engine

Sheldon Robar says, “We finally passed one of the many hurdles of the negotiations. Nova Scotia comes first. This is where I want to start and after five weeks, they reluctantly agreed. The good part is one guy in that group understands the thermodynamics of refrigerants. He understands it (technology) will work, which you can’t read out of a book because this book hasn’t been written yet.

One reason Robar says he is remaining loyal to the province is he is happy at this point with the response of the Progressive-Conservative government.

“We’re waiting for a meeting with the Energy Minister (Richard Hurlburt), which we feel confident will occur through (Human Resources Minister) Carolyn Bolivar Getson’s office.” He adds Bolivar-Getson has been helpful as well.

Robar has spent over 27 years developing an engine that relies on a heated refrigerant propellant that’s ozone friendly. The closed loop system releases no emissions and requires extremely low heat temperatures for vapourization to occur and expand to generate the force needed to move a vehicle, generator and many other forms of machinery. Utilizing waste heat, as one example, is a potentially huge market, Robar says.

He says he spurned other offers because of the thermodynamics expert mentioned above. Because of business negotiations, The Advance-confirmed investment group must remain anonymous, as usually occurs.

Robar adds it hasn’t hurt that a former version of the technology has been patented at the United States Patent Office.

The expert actually received a physical copy of a spring The Queens County Advance in which an article appeared about the invention, understood the potential and contacted Robar.

Representing the group, he, and possibly others, is visiting Nova Scotia early this month to work on the business details.

Robar says, “The article sparked his interest. He said he ‘always knew it could be done;’ he just didn’t know how to do it.”

Since the article, Robar has also talked to at least two government-funded agencies.

“They’ve only been an hindrance, which didn’t discourage me at all. It took 27 years to build this; I’m not about to quit in 27 months.”

Now, however, he says, “We’ve got a formidable task ahead of us. There are a lot of regulations and guidelines in place and we want to abide by them.”

He is hoping a board of directors will be formed by the end of the month.

After three decades, people would expect the inventor to be excited by this news but he appears to be calm about his dream.

“When we pound this through and see it on the market, then I’ll be excited. The biggest thing is I stuck to my guns. It’s my feeling Nova Scotia needs this more than any other province because so much is coal fired.”

He adds he is proud to be taking action – instead of just talking about it - that is expected to help both the environment and economy at the same time.

Information about timelines, jobs and other business details will be released in the future, he says.