Northern inventor sells idea and technology.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: SPECIAL REPORT: FORESTRY - Gerry Bugyra's NorWa Horizontal Pellet Machine used by Ekofuels Technology Inc.

A Wawa entrepreneur who developed an innovative wood pelletizing machine has sold his technology to a southern Ontario manufacturer who is taking his invention to a world market.

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Gerry Bugyra's 'NorWa Horizontal Pellet Machine' is on display at a Mississauga factory where Ekofuels Technology is taking orders and deposits for a 2008 production run.

Last February, Bugyra sold all his interests and intellectual property in the pelletizing machine he designed from a prototype in his Wawa shop.

Ekofuels Technology Inc. is the exclusive maker and distributor of his equipment design and is proceeding with an international marketing strategy to start selling machines to clients overseas.

Bugyra built the "show mill" in Mississauga for investor tours and has redesigned his turn-key system allowing for an operator to quick-change punches and dies within minutes.

He was under contract to the company as a consultant until the end of January.

Years before in his Wawa shop, Bugyra came up with a milling system that was a more energy efficient and a production improvement over the conventional ring-die system.

The fully-automated system can now pelletize any kind of hard and softwood waste, hog ends, stumps, pallets, construction material, hemp, straw, switchgrass, compost, manure and peat moss.

Bugyra, a trained industrial millwright and diesel mechanic, once wanted to establish a chain of pellet mills across the North, converting wood waste into fuel to heat greenhouses and provide animal bedding.

But he didn't have the access to capital.

His machine, however, caught the attention of Starwood Manufacturing, a Mississauga hardwood flooring company, which wanted an environmentally friendly way of disposing of their wood waste. Bugyra struck a deal and joined them in 2005.

Starwood was eventually absorbed by a venture capital firm headed by Steven Chepa and the pellet mill project now runs under the banner of Ekofuels Technology.

Bugyra said last February's $1.3 million deal turning over the machine to Chepa Ventures basically got him out of debt.

His Wawa operation was running until Weyerhaeuser closed its local strandboard mill in October. The machinery is now for up sale.

Now he's looking to the future as a freelancing consultant specializing in biomass and alternative energy solutions using wood, hemp and switchgrass.

Bugyra says with 1.2 million tonnes of world demand for wood pellets...