Off the Beaten Path

Cutting edge technology, international customers and big-budget projects are now part and parcel of Devron Kobluk’s professional life. As the President of Blue Diamond Technologies (BDT), he has co-created a company that owns intellectual property, trademarks and patents related to four different green businesses. These initiatives are helping to change traditional practices into more environmentally friendly ones.

Though his early years were spent in a rural setting, Kobluk’s leap into the global market has been a quick, yet natural progression. After obtaining a degree in Environmental Studies with a focus on forest conservation, Kobluk worked as an assistant manager for the Alonsa Conservation District. However, upon reading a brochure about graduate programs at Brandon University (BU) and after a bit more digging on the University’s website, Kobluk says that he “was hooked.”

“Growing up on a farm near Inglis (Manitoba), I took a special interest in rural development and ways to allow for new environmental economic and business models to bring growth to the region,” he says.

Of his time at BU, Kobluk remembers enjoying the small class sizes and the close personal working relationships with the Professors in the Department of Rural Development.

“Taking the graduate program allowed for more independent thought and discussions,” he recalls. “A highlight was meeting a very diverse group of people from across Canada and Ghana that were in the program. Although we all came from different backgrounds and the issues facing their rural areas were different, our goal to improve people’s lives was the same.”

In his newest role, he works with BDT’s CEO and board members to implement projects that adhere to securities and accounting regulations. One of the developments BDT has introduced is a new technology that increases the efficiency by which water can be used to recycle tires. As a result, BDT recently signed a capital financing contract for the first commercial facility with Insigma Group China.

“Our unique process allows for the recovered rubber to be a direct replacement for virgin rubber and plastic polymers in the manufacturing process,” says Kobluk. “Current technology uses shredding and cracker mills to size reduce tires which is highly inefficient, and the end product does not have the proper chemical and physical characteristic for new rubber products and plastics.”

BDT has set its sights on Asia because the recession that has affected Western economies has not done so there. China, for example, has been a great market for the company to explore. The Chinese are now purchasing vehicles more than ever. The consequences of this, like the disposal of these tires, are of great concern. In the United States, where the population is less dense that in China, it is estimated that there is one scrap tire per person per year. In present-day China there are now more than 310 million car owners and that figure is expected to double in the next five years. Tires alone present a huge problem. So, while North American markets have been slow to respond to BDT’s tire solution, the Chinese authorities bought into their new technology. Within less than a year, the Chinese are building rubber recycling plants based on BDT’s findings.

“It’s domestic consumption that’s rising in China and other Southeast Asian countries,” says Kobluk. “They’re skipping a step that we (experienced). We had to learn through large ecological disasters that we created. The problems they have now took us 30 years to solve, so they can (quickly) solve them.”

Another BDT innovation is an economical, in-line, waste effluent treatment system to filter out human, animal, oil/gas and many other types of contaminants. Kobluk explains that current systems use large scale, expensive batch-handling technology.

“Our system runs in-line, allowing for the removal of nutrients and suspended solids,” he says. “Towns and cities in North America face huge infrastructure costs to upgrade their human sewage treatment systems to meet new environmental regulations of nutrient discharges to the water table. Most notable is phosphorus, which causes algae growth in our waterways. Our system offers an affordable solution to meeting current and new regulations.”

A third endeavour is focused in Vietnam. Kobluk’s company has developed a waste-to-energy project that proposes taking municipal solid waste and converting it into electricity, fertilizer, bio-gas, diesel or ethanol.

“My business partner and I have come across opportunities for (solutions) that are needed in the environment,” Kobluk says. “So what we’ve done is come up with ideas, source out like-minded people and consulting or engineering groups. Then, we’ve raised private equity to fund third-party testing and any further work that we need done.”

Finally, BDT holds a technology that increases the yield and quality of pork in hog processing plants. Like the other three business ventures, this one has gone through extensive research and development, business model building and marketplace investigating.

“The technology compliments current cooling processes in hog packing plants by increasing bottom line yield number and allowing for more product to meet specifications for Asian markets, which command a higher price per pound,” says Kobluk.

Blue Diamond Technologies is incorporated in Manitoba, with subsidiaries located in Asia and the United States. One of Kobluk’s American colleagues, BDT’s Vice President of Business Development, Thomas Ross is based in Phoenix. He first met Kobluk when the latter was still a graduate student at Brandon University.

“What first comes to mind about Devron is his humility, strength and persistence,” said Ross in a phone interview. “Devron is perfectly suited for this company. I’ve seen him provide technical expertise and an eye for detail that I admire. He’s very focused and very devoted.”

Looking to the future, Kobluk anticipates other opportunities to develop new green technologies. Along with continued work toward the success of all four of BDT’s divisions, he and his partners will keep investigating current industrial processes and respond with socially and environmentally alternatives.

“It’s always been said that clean energy and recycling is not profitable,” Kobluk said. “That is simply not true. It’s a matter of having the right pieces at the right to make any business profitable.”