The business will invest approximately $80,000 in upgrades to the building and capital equipment, city records show. The project will result in the creation of 10 new jobs in Centerville and an estimated $700,000 to $1 million in annual payroll.
Albert Vam, a UDRI senior chemical engineer, developed, patented and scaled desulfurization technology and, with the help of his team at UDRI, successfully demonstrated the system.
“We have been in business for about a year but only now we need a facility which we will use as (a) pilot scale manufacturing, development and training facility,” said Vam, Desulf-TEK’s founder, president and CEO.
Vam said the process of desulfurizing, or removing sulfur from diesel and jet fuel, is a requirement for any pick-up truck, semi truck, diesel generator or any piece of construction equipment engine that runs on diesel fuel.
“They’re intentionally built in a way that they don’t burn any high sulfur fuel,” Vam said. “Any piece of equipment that’s run on a diesel engine made in the United States of Europe, cannot tolerate any sulfur. If it sees high sulfur in a fuel that’s combusting, it will shut off immediately.”
Having the ability to provide a mobile way of desulfurizing fuel means, in a relatively small footprint of less than 200 square feet, being able to service remote locations where there aren’t refineries.
The company will move into the facility by the end of this month and be fully operational by the fall, Vam said. It will take about two years to build the company’s workforce to 10 part- and full-time employees, he said.
Centerville staff evaluated Desulf-TEK’s investment and job creation and recommended a property investment reimbursement (PIR) grant valued at 20 percent of its projected withholdings for five years, city correspondence shows. The total value of the proposed structure is approximately $20,000 over the lifetime of the rebate.
Centerville City Council voted Monday to approve the PIR grant for Desulf-TEK.
PIR grants are intended to incentivize business operations in strategic sectors like information technology, medical office and logistics, plus corporate and professional office users. Centerville has five active PIR agreements, city correspondence shows.
“We are excited to welcome Desulf-TEK and its innovative technology to our community,” Centerville Development Director Michael Norton-Smith told this news outlet Tuesday. “Our PIR grant will help this UDRI-supported company to bring about 10 high-paying research and development jobs to the city of Centerville and fill a vacant industrial space.”
Expansion costs for the project include, but may not be limited to, costs such as architecture, design, construction, and other costs associated with the redevelopment of the subject property, records show.
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