Port Technology Conference Aims To Boost Local Economy
More than 200 folks showed up at the half-day Port Technology Conference in San Pedro last week to hear about opportunities to develop technology that will help the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach meet their environmental, security, and throughput needs.Although the conference was sponsored by the two ports, it was put together by the San Pedro Bay Ports Technologies Development Coalition - an initiative of the San Pedro and Wilmington chambers of commerce and the Harbor Association of Industry and Commerce. The group hopes to create a cluster of high-tech companies in the harbor area aimed at developing and manufacturing port-related technology.
Louis Romo of Yorba Linda-based Vycon Corp. and Matt Stewart of Rancho Dominguez-based Advanced Cleanup Technologies Inc. both talked about the ports' joint Technology Advancement Program, which offers grants to companies with promising technologies.
Vycon manufactures and sells a flywheel technology for rubber-tired gantry cranes that cuts fuel use and reduces emissions of pollutants and green-house gases, Romo noted. Although the technology has been certified by the California Air Resources Board - with help from the port - local terminal operators have been slow to buy it.
The sale of the product is "mandate driven," he explained. U.S. terminal operators, with some exceptions, have been reluctant to invest in it until it is required. If it's not required until 2014, they will wait until the deadline draws near before making a purchase.
Sales in Asia, on the other hand, are much stronger, he said. Asian companies are more interested in the potential to save on fuel. The environmental benefits there are secondary.
Government funding is good, but it's not enough, he said. Small businesses cannot survive if they are dependent on the government to subsidize their products.
Stewart talked about Advanced Cleanup Technologies Inc.'s "sock-on-the-stack" system, which places a bonnet hanging from a crane over the exhaust stack of a ship, sucks the exhaust through a scrubber, and cleans out the pollutants before they can escape into the air. Since bulk ships may only call at the port once a year, and their power needs at dock are less than container and reefer vessels, it's not cost effective to cold-iron them, he said. The company plans to demonstrate the system later this week at the Metro Ports bulk terminal in Long Beach.
Peter Peyton of ILWU Local 63 advised companies investing in new systems to get the rank-and-file workers involved in making decisions. The people who push the buttons and move the freight know best what they need to do the job, he said.