The joke around the office at Sustainable Power Corp. these days is what Chairman John Rivera likes to call the, “Liars Club.” Why?

“Anyone you tell about this will call you a liar,” he said.

In an economy held hostage by oil prices rapidly approaching the stratosphere, this Baytown-based alternate energy company has found a way to make substantial amounts of crude oil from farm waste.

Now Rivera must convince potential investors that his trade secret – 21 years and $31 million dollars in the making – isn’t just a bunch of smoke and mirrors.

The “Rivera Method” takes such agricultural refuse as cracked soy beans, rice and cotton seed hulls, grain sorghum, milo and jatropha and turns them into bio-crude oil. This crude – or Vetroleum, as Rivera calls it - can then be further refined into everything from gasoline to jet fuel and just about every petrochemical in between.

With this process, just one bushel (60 pounds) of organic waste can yield about six gallons of bio-crude, Rivera said.

What’s more, Rivera claims that products made from Vetroleum burn at near 100 percent efficiency, leaving behind neither heat nor pollution as proof of the chemical reactions taking place.

To demonstrate, Rivera set fire to two samples of oil. The first sample – a few drops of conventional petroleum – burned briefly before dying out, leaving behind only wisps of black smoke and an unmistakable smell.

The second sample – Rivera’s Vetroleum – not only produced a taller flame longer, but was clearly without smoke and smell.

For further proof, plant workers cranked up a large industrial engine block and a four-wheeler powered by Vetroleum gasoline to display the fuel’s compatibility with today’s combustion engines. Even after a few minutes of operation, the engine block was cool to the touch while the four-wheeler’s exhaust pipe seemed to emit little more than warm, odorless air.

“Our biggest problem is that we are too good to be true,” Rivera said. “We can literally replace every gallon of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel in the United States using just 12 percent of the waste byproducts in the country.”

And if that wasn’t enough, the sole byproduct from the crude-making process is fertilizer: 737-grade, all organic fertilizer.

“The fertilizer is worth about 15 cents per pound, but the fuel byproduct is worth much more,” said General Manager Gerald Brent.

Sustainable Power currently houses five of these Vetroleum-producing reactors within its Baytown facility, the largest of which is capable of continuous output in just under nine minutes of operation. In addition to the central reactor, the company has also built four much smaller reactors that can be delivered to potential investors in order to both assuage doubts and test the viability of local farm wastes.

The eventual goal, Brent said, is the construction of 400 reactors at the Baytown facility – each capable of producing 6,000 gallons of bio-crude a day – and a (Vetroleum-powered) 500 megawatt energy plant capable of servicing 400,000 homes.

Brent expects the facility to be ready within the next 12 to 18 months. “We have to build this from the ground up. This is just our proof-of-concept,” he said.

Powergen Development Vice President Jim Armstrong expressed appreciation for the time and effort put into developing alternate energy sources, saying that Rivera’s discovery comes at a critical moment in the country’s energy crisis as the cost of oil continues to strain peoples’ already tight budgets.

“This is like Thomas Edison’s lab 100 years ago. It’s all about playing with new ideas and finding out what works and what doesn’t. Without research and development, you get nothing new,” he said. “This winter people in the North will be deciding whether to spend money on heating oil or food. Where did we miss the boat?”

“There’s a reason why everyone is excited about this. It’s going to change our entire energy economy,” assistant plant manager Scott Lausch said. “It may not replace oil – yet – but it will help our fuel supply last longer and show people that there are other ways to make it.”

In the meantime, Rivera plans to sell his Vetroleum as a component that will be blended with conventional petroleum-based gasoline. Federal law states that 4 percent of all gasoline and diesel must be produced via alternate or green methods by 2010.

“For strictly commercial reasons it’s better to start off selling it as a blend because it earns us more money being a green energy source,” Rivera said. “As we go into production where we can make a dent in the 57 million gallons used every day, it will be 100 percent bio-crude.”

Rivera promises to one day sell his gasoline for $1 less than the pump price for regular fuel, no matter what the cost. “Even if it’s $2 per gallon, I’ll sell mine for $1,” he said.

For more information on Vetroleum and Sustainable Power Corp., visit www.sustainablepower.com