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Business Overview

Significant unalterable events are driving demand for Startech's Plasma Converter. They are:

  • Rising populations in most nations
  • General increases in generated waste levels
  • Current waste disposal and remediation techniques such as landfills and incineration becoming regulatory, socially and environmentally unacceptable
  • A need for critical resources (i.e. power and water) to sustain local economies
  • The emphasis being placed upon the production of distributed power and the need to provide alternatives to fossil fuels

Startech's core Plasma technology addresses these waste and resource issues by offering remediation solutions that are integrated with a range of equipment solutions and services. These products add value to our customers' business so they can now realize revenue streams from tipping fees, as well as from the sale of resulting commodity products and services. Alternatively, this will allow them to generate the product they need while at the same time using a zero cost basis, or revenue generating, source of raw material (waste).

Since 1995 Startech has been actively trumpeting the superiority of plasma over other forms of waste remediation technologies. This ongoing education of the public and government continues to this day. Like every new processing technology we have been met with varying degrees of resistance. In 2000, recognizing the increasing importance of alternative energy and power sources in general, and hydrogen in particular, we expanded our product line to include a hydrogen separation technology we named StarCell™. Working in conjunction with our core product, the Plasma Converter™, StarCell provides a green and renewable source of hydrogen to accelerate the hydrogen economy. In addition, Startech offers its customers the opportunity to produce methanol from the Plasma Converted Gas (PCG™) produced in the Plasma Converter. Due to many of the factors mentioned above, as well as the rising comfort level with plasma-based technologies through our educational and informational efforts Startech is now being greeted by a much more receptive marketplace. The Company has taken steps to transform its business from being solely a seller of equipment to a total solutions provider, including facility ownership or management.

The business model and its market development strategies arise from the Company's mission, which is to change the way, the world views and employs discarded materials; what many would now call waste. We will achieve this objective by strategically marketing a series of products and services emanating from the core Plasma Converter ™ technology, resulting in saleable fossil fuel alternatives while providing a safer and healthier environment. This paradigm-shifting strategy will be implemented through the use of an enhanced business model that provides for engineering services and direct equipment sales with after sales support and service.

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Key Market Segments

Startech views its business as divided into key market segments such as; power/energy, waste remediation, and engineering services. Projects are generally categorized according to the specific or stated objective of the customer (i.e. waste remediation or power generation). For example, a customer may have a need to remediate a particularly onerous waste such as PCB's. He may have no need to produce commodity products. The goal is to simply get rid of waste. That would be considered a waste remediation project. Conversely, a customer in an area with limited or high cost power may want to select a waste stream to give the greatest amount of PCG with which to produce power to run his system or for other power uses. The production of power is the desired benefit and the feedstock (waste material) selected is chosen for the highest quality commodity product produced, in this case electric power.

1. Power/Energy

The first market segment is power/energy. This segment includes projects that incorporate equipment that create power/energy products to work in conjunction with our core plasma technology. An example of the Company's commitment to this segment is the strategic alliance we have established with Hydro-Chem, a division of Linde, located in Canton, Georgia to promote the production of hydrogen and methanol created using our Plasma Converter. Hydro-Chem is a leading U.S. based manufacturer of methanol plants and will be scaling its units to match the PCG output of our Plasma Converters. Similar alliances in the sector will be pursued with other significant power/energy equipment and/or generation companies.

2. Waste Remediation

The second market segment is waste remediation. This part of our business includes projects where the emphasis of the customer is to dispose of its waste material in an environmentally responsible, and cost effective, manner. Waste material disposal costs vary greatly depending on the composition of the waste. Startech will be specifically targeting customers that will receive the most economic gain form using our technology. Examples of such waste streams are:

  • Medical waste
  • Outdated pharmaceuticals
  • PCBs
  • Chemical agents
  • Hazardous incinerator ash
  • Various biological wastes
  • Sludges
  • Paints and solvents
  • Electronic industry waste
  • Contaminated soils
  • Asbestos

Two key strategic alliance partners in this segment are UXB International Inc., of Ashburn, Virginia and Calumet Coach of Calumet City, Illinois. UXB is one of the largest explosive ordnance disposal companies in the world. Startech's agreement requires the parties to seek out sales opportunities employing the Plasma Converter systems in both stationary and mobile configurations for unexploded ordnance and explosive ordnance such as munitions, weapons, and chemical warfare materiel that are found on military bases, firing ranges, and former war zones scattered throughout the world. Calumet Coach builds mobile units in both semi-trailer and self-propelled configurations and has been in business for fifty years, serving special health care, military, and industrial applications throughout the world. Startech and Calumet mobile Plasma units will bring waste remediation solutions to customers in remote areas, or with specific needs for processing on a mobile platform.

3. Engineering Services

The third market segment is engineering services. This segment includes a wide range of bundled and unbundled services that we provide for our customers. This includes material testing, waste analysis, environmental processing solutions, pro-forma test analyses, and application engineering services. Startech will be growing the contract testing and services areas of its business as demand for testing and analysis of specialized waste streams from customers' increases.

We maintain a strategic alliance in this segment with Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM). SOM is a world-class architectural and engineering services firm with offices throughout the world. The Company's agreement with SOM provides for their participation, on a case-by-case basis, with the architectural design and construction of Plasma Converter Resource Recovery Centers™. The use of our Plasma Converter™ configured for use in large-scale facilities represents a potential significant revenue source.

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Sales

Startech offers four ways that customers can purchase Plasma Converter systems and/or related engineering services as follows:

  1. Straight Equipment Sales:
    We sell our equipment to customers who prefer to purchase and operate their own equipment. We simply sell or lease our Plasma Converters and associated equipment to customers without taking an equity position in the project. The Company offers long-term service agreements to these direct customers assuring them that their systems will be serviced when needed and assuring the availability of spare parts.
  2. Engineering Services:
    Startech offers testing and application engineering services for outside companies as well as material testing, waste analysis, and environmental processing solutions for Plasma Converter system customers. The Company trains customers' system engineers and operators at its Demonstration and Training Center in Bristol, CT. A comprehensive program of classroom and hands-on training is conducted over several weeks during the customer's system build cycle, much of which is conducted on the customer's own system under assembly.

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