So while it’s frustrating that it doesn’t adopt fast, and it’s hard-slugging to get those first adopters, we’re confident that we will and that we’re in a good position. And we’re anxious also, as everyone knows, for the go forward on Phase 2 of our large project, our industrial account that we announced approximately almost nine — about none months ago, maybe more, where we did Phase 1 and we’re waiting for Phase 2. It has not moved forward. And I’ll tell you that I think the read on that — two things that I’d comment for people to be aware. The first is that the regulatory front is still moving very much. And people wait and wait and wait until someone makes them do it. That’s the first thing. Second thing, and again, the mandates are here.
They’re going into effect. The testing limits are extraordinarily low. And the identification of PFAS as a hazmat is uniform throughout the market. That’s one. Second is, with the financial times, there’s a lot of people hanging on to money waiting to see what holds in the future with the Fed rate and what’s going to happen on the next market dynamics, especially coming into the fall, to see if we’re in an inflationary period or whether they need to put capital to work in a problem that they just assume not fixed until they have to. So there’s a little bit of both going on. I think the capital market’s impact is probably greater than we realized. We are witnessing across the Engineering group and the Water group, there’s a lot of customers who said yes, who’ve scoped and priced and bid and shook our hand and said, we’re in, we’re in, we’re in, and we still don’t have a signed contract.
So that can be very frustrating. But we know, in the end, our technology can prevail. We’ve got good relationships with these customers, and we’ll find our start and get going in a more meaningful way. So that’s my update on PFAS and the Water venture for now, Brian. Next?
Brian Loper: Great. Great. On that front, can you talk any more about sales with Garratt-Callahan?
Dennis Calvert: Yes. Again, long cycles, much longer than anticipated. Everybody hear it all the time. We were forecasting success last summer. And here we are coming into the mid-summer and we’re still waiting. The good news is that the whole series of things have been accomplished. One, as you know, we did a demonstration device in our location with customers — can’t remember when — recent history. We’ve also built a commercial unit that’s capable of going out on a portable trailer that can now be taken to client locations and performed and demonstrate its efficacy. So that’s a big deal. We also know from Garratt-Callahan that there’s a renewed vigor to see this get into a commercial mode. And so a number of clients are in process.
And we believe that, again, we’re really near the mark of having success in moving forward with the customer. The other thing, of course, is that Garratt-Callahan, because of the advancing of PFAS globally as well as everyone’s awareness, including any industry has heard about PFAS now, they’re particularly excited about representing the PFAS technology into their customer base as well. So our work with them is live, continuing, very active. And prospects, again, very much like PFAS, coming to the table, looking for the first successful ventures. And we’re knocking on the door, so hopefully, it’s very, very soon.
Brian Loper: Great. Great. So switching channels here. We have some questions about the sodium-sulfur battery. So BioLargo Energy Technologies, Inc. is the subsidiary in charge of that, of looking at. Can you give us a bit of an update on the prototype or commercialization? What’s going on there?
Dennis Calvert: Yes, it’s very exciting, actually. So recall that we acquired the technology we raised, just under $1 million, from direct investors into the subsidiary. Sold a small portion of the company to capitalize those efforts. And then we’ve now taken that money dedicated to the building of a prototype production line. So that’s in our building, our building complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, adjacent to our Engineering group. And we’re building a prototype line. A line — this is a series of tools and machines that make batteries. So the general contracts were hired. We’re now coming in on the final stages of the construction of the facility. So that’s HVAC, electricity, lights, power, ventilation, all the things necessary to support that line, and requisition of all the requisite equipment, a lot of equipment.
All that equipment is being delivered, including supplies and materials. We’d like to be in the moment to say the line is live, something like 45 to 70 days, something like that. A little grace required because we’re waiting for people to deliver. But once all that is in one place, they’ll go through some preliminary testing start to make prototypes. So I’d like to say that we’ll be in the prototype delivery business hopefully before the end of the year or thereabouts. Again, a lot of stuff is hitting us. And some of this is impacted also by the increase in contracting for engineering services and the other endeavors. But we’re really focused on getting those prototypes out. Because once the prototypes are in our possession, we can do verification testing to verify claims and then also begin marketing and positioning those for adoption with client partners.
And so that’s where we’re at.
