I was reminded of a post I made from November 2005 about a supposed gasifier being shown to ex-Washington D.C. mayor Marion Berry. The machine was large and complex and was supposed to turn garbage and sewage into usable oil.
Just for fun, I googled the name and it seems Mr. Romana is still running the same scam and goes from area to area bilking investors out of their money. When it is time to start construction of the processing plant, Mr. Romana pulls up his tent stakes and moves somewhere else.
Original post from The Washington Post
September 2014 - New Zealand, Winnepeg and some Mohawk tribesmen from Quebec from CBC News.
March 2014 - New Zealand from the NZ Manawatu Standard posted on stuff.co.nz
'Ripoff' trail leads to Canada
A self-professed energy entrepreneur who is unable to be found by a liquidator looking into his New Zealand-based company - which pulled in multiple investors from Manawatu and Horowhenua - is hiding out in Canada.
He is going by a different name and making art at a studio for people with mental health issues.
He is also not communicating with a Canadian woman who alleges he owes her $50,000 from a business deal gone sour.
Simon Romana founded Ira NRG in March 2010, before taking his investment plan on a roadshow around New Zealand.
The company claimed to be in possession of gasification technology that would convert waste biomass into energy.
Shareholders signed on by buying share parcels, but the business was banned in December 2010 by the Securities Commission after it was discovered it had asked for investment money without a prospectus. By that stage, the company had 246 shareholdings.
And from the web archive comes this May 2006 article from The New Zealand Listener:
Sludge Watch ==> Energy to Burn - The Kiwi - the Native - the gasifier - the sludge - the story
A fast-talking Kiwi claims that his invention, which he says converts rubbish and sewage to electricity and clean water, will revolutionise the world. And although some people, including chemical engineering xperts, are deeply skeptical, others are fronting up with support and cash. It’s a cold November day in a Washington DC parking lot, and Simon Romana from Te Hapua is standing beside the machine that he says will change the world. Mounted on a trailer unit stabilized by blocks, it’s a maze of pipes and chimneys, fans and engines, knobs and dials. One of the handful of reporters present, the Washington Post’s Eric Weiss, says it looks like a locomotive with its cover ripped off.
Fifty-year-old Romana, in dark glasses and with his black hair falling onto the shoulders of his tan jacket, tells the crowd of about 50 that the machine is a “gasifier” that can convert trash and sewage into pollution-free electricity and clean water.
Understandably, it has some powerful support.
But it's OK - he has a PhD in Physics (talking about his resume)
On it the New Zealander claims to have a doctorate in physics, acquired some time between 1974 and 1985 from Texas State University and Ben Gurion University in Israel. There are several problems with that. The first is that Texas State University didn’t exist until 2003. Before that, it went by the name of Southwest Texas State University. The second is that Texas State only offers up to a master’s degree in physics. As well, Ben Gurion University in Israel has no record of his enrollment under any of three names he has been known to go by – Simon Romana, Simon Norman or Simon Phillips – and its physics department couldn’t remember anyone of those names.
People really want to believe - unfortunately, the basic laws of physics trump any narrative or fundraising.
Please note that there are a couple of businesses with 1st NRG or just NRG in their names - these guys are completely above-board and legitimate.