Unqualified pessimism IS NOT unbiased researchUnqualified pessimism is no more objective than unqualified optimism. It's true it's very difficult to take a truly objective perspective without prejudice toward one's personal position, but offering unqualified pessimism as "objectivity" is just as misleading as unqualified optimism. With the screen name zenvesting, I strive to take a balanced view to get the best picture of the reality, being too optimistic or too pesimistic will lead to distorted views of the reality of the markets we invest in. Here's my best attempt to take an objective look at what has happened with Petro-maine and Euocontrol's other development efforts as well.
First, it's false to imply that nothing has come of Petro-marine. Xenemetrix did complete the development of a specialized EDXRF instrument for fuel and lubricant monitoring onboard merchant vessels they called Petromarine:
Xenemetrix Petro-Marine EDXRF Petro-marine actually has it's own website as well:
Petro-Marine website Petro-Marine also performed testing of the monitoring with "one of the largest container shipping companies in the world headquartered in Israel":
Digital Ship Petro-Marine article So the guy who hides behind multiple screen names wants to imply that Petro-marine has not been a commercial success because there was a nefarious misdirection of some sort involved here. First I would point out that almost every other competitor in the EDXRF market has completed the development of a specialized EDXRF instrument for marine applications for onboard monitoring of fuels and lubricants with variable rates of commercial success....so are all these companies trying to scam their investors....or are they simply trying to make a competitive entry in a competitive market?:
Spectro Marine solution InstaTech / Rigaku Olympus SEA-mate Now if one calls the company and asks why Petro-Marine has not a commercial success to date, they will provide a rational explanation that their commercialization partner in this project still found it cheaper to collect fuel samples for sulfur and submit it to laboratories and the added benefit of use of EDXRF for preventative maintenance wasn't enough to convince hem of the cost-benefit balance of having an onboard EDXRF system. Their commercialization partner also wanted to be able to use the onboard analytical system for emissions monitoring requirements that need to be met by other analytical service providers:
SGS Marine Emissions Monitoring So the truth of the matter is, all the other competitors in the EDXRF market have developed similar devices and there's not much evidence of them having great commercial success either, except perhaps Olympus who partnered with Maersk, but there's still an opportunity to make a more robust monitoring system capable of real-time monitoring of NOx and SOx emissions as rquirements for such monitoring are phased-in by the International Maritime Organization (IMO). A more technically competent observer might also be able to recognize some synergy between the development of aqueos nitrogen and sulfer analysis capabilities for Croptimal could translate into expanded capabilities for air emissions monitoring of similar constuents.
Furthermore, an objective poster might recognize that Frost & Sullivan performs objective research and grants awards based on merit, but does charge a commercial entity for publicizing the receipt of a Frost & Sullivan Award......many reputable organizations tout their receipt of Frost & Sullivan Awards......or maybe a moron would imply that Siemens in guilty of some impropriety for touting their Frost & Sullivan Award for being "Global MRI Company of the year 2017":
Seimens Healthlineers news In a nutshell, development of new technology requires investment and risk and the odds of commercial success are low. I think we are all aware of that risk to investing in R&D companies. Eurocontrol has had success in selling GFI to SICPA and continues to work to minimize commercialization risk by partnering with interested commecial partners in development projects such as Netafim in development of Croptimal, "two of the three largest semiconductor companies" in development of XwinSys, "one of the worlds largest container shipping companies" for Petro-Marine. Anyone who follows the markets should expect that results in technology development are not instantaneous, a company may need to go "back to the drawing board" several times before perfecting a solution......this company is developing world class technology in competitive markets, as acknowledged by SICPA's acquisition of GFI and the Frost & Sullivan awards for EDXRF....and I expect more success from these well-directed efforts in the future here.