Andrea Rossi - The rebirth

In December 1996, Andrea Rossi, without a penny, emigrated to the USA employed in a company specialized in systems that derive energy from biomass, the Bio Development Corporation, Bedford, New Hampshire.

He put his previous patents at the company disposal and a few months later he was appointed Chief Scientist.

The Bio Development had professional relationship with the American DOE (Department Of Energy) to research new energy sources (Energy Act), with regard to this issue began their collaboration. Rossi’s contribution was significant: in the U.S. he deposited a large number of new patents to produce energy from not fossil sources.

The technologies developed by the engineer during his work in the factories of Omar and Petroldragon  gave a big contribution to Biodiesel production and even today many biomass plants are working thanks to the proceedings deriving from Petroldragon-Omar technologies.

In 2000, Ing. Andrea Rossi realized an important plant for the production of charcoal from wood waste in Chicago, but when he was about to begin construction, he had to face another difficulty caused by the Italian government: during a journey back in Italy from the United States, at the arrival in Rome airport, he was served an arrest warrant for the bankruptcy of Omar. He was immediately arrested. Only after a long procedural battle Ing. Rossi was released.

During this period of “forced residence” in Italy, Ing. Andrea Rossi developed the technology of electricity produced from biomass, elaborated in the U.S.

In  the meanwhile he kept professional relationships with the United States, and started working with LTI (Leonardo Technology Incorporated), a company that provides technology and equipment to the DOE (Department of Energy) and the DOD (Department of Defence) in the production of energy from renewable sources.

In 2009 Rossi went back in the U.S. permanently, he directed the development of a new energy source, patented by Rossi, for which in U.S. has been called the status of priority.

Andrea Rossi - Loosing personal capital due to trials

After what happened, everything was closed and seized, as easy to understand, banks would not only refuse to grant any form of credit to companies, but also demanded the immediate return of all the granted amount, credits that helped to fund the research, experiments, construction of machinery and equipment, it’s easy to calculate thinking about the exponential growth of the activity and the need of funds to finance this significant expansion.

Ing. Rossi gave to the banks the personal capital and that of his family as guarantee, estimated, overall, about 50 billion lire but all properties had been expropriated and managed by the receivers. The financial tragedy strikes all companies of the Group. It’s bankruptcy!

Ing. Rossi got out completely stripped of all property and lacking of any kind of income.
Some company had to be charged to assess the possible environmental damage and the work needed to carry out the reclamation.

Some special agency was charged to start the disposal of thousands tons of equipment , including the already refined products and raw materials that Omar and Petroldragon had to work and to sell with profit.

The disposal is contracted out in a few days, this is very strange, given the delays that usually characterize these “assignment of work”; else very strange is the costs of these waste: in the years Omar and Petroldragon paid around 400 lire per kilogram1990 to dispose waste from the manufacturing facilities to the duly authorized disposal; for the same exact operation, the same of Omar Petroldragon, and disposal of raw materials and finished products stored at the plants, despite of being commercialized, the cost reached amounts absolutely out of the market, with a mean value of 1500 lire / kg.

Even the timing in allocation of funds that needed to be paid for these expensive reclamation, was also somewhat anomalous, since in general those funds made available in years, even in case of the same “ecological disaster”. 

Each one can draw their own conclusion about this abnormal difference in price between what is custom and what happened in this particular case.

It’s evident that the financing to recover the funds for disposal was already planned, it had already been prepared since a long time, probably even before the unfolding of events that led the Ing. Rossi in jail. Even in this case, each one can draw his deductions.

Again, we stress the strange coincidence in time between the closure of Andrea Rossi activity and the beginning of the waste commercialization of Camorra.

All of the above, has been widely documented and demonstrated during Ing. Rossi trials.
In the next 17 years Andrea Rossi will go on 56 trials that, due to the total lack of property and assets (previously estimated at 50 billion lire), and to the bankruptcy of firms, will force him to fill up with debts that he is still paying.

Those 56 prosecutions, for which he was incarcerated, end up with an acquittal of all processes for tax reasons, derived from bankruptcy by the closure of Omar and Petroldragon, 5 of them ended with a conviction, which would justify the period of preventive imprisonment for the accusations that led to the arrests. All other requirements ended up in acquittals.

Omar Petroldragon customers themselves, testified for Ing. Rossi, even those who have suffered seizures and damage claims for having business relationships with companies of Rossi.

Despite the acquittal and the evidence of the truth of what promised by the production methods the industrial activity was inexorably compromised and nothing could be done to recuperate the situation.

Andrea Rossi - Italian laws suddenly classify fuel oil to be waste

Suddenly, according to Italian law, the materials used by Petroldragon for the production of fuel oil from secondary materials became materials to be wasted, as a consequence, Petroldragon that did not have permits for waste treatment, was considered an illegal activity;  the same happens to the Petroldragon final products, previously considered fuel oil, now waste. As a consequence, Omar refinery supply of raw material was stopped, die to missing waste treatment authorizations, and the company was considered outlawed.

Even more, products outgoing from Omar plants became also waste, it was firstly considered market product, subject to regular payment of production taxes, then all customers who had always bought these products found in their own warehouses or factories, no more finished products, but waste storage. In order to treat them or storage them, authorization was required, but clearly, they did not have it: as a consequence all Omar and Petroldragon clients were outlawed.

It’s clear, Petroldragon, Omar and all their customers, were put under sequestration.

They would be released from seizure only if they committed not to buy more products derived from processing plants and Omar Petroldragon.

Due to the negative assessment of the situation, all banks and credit institutions with which Andrea Rossi had always worked, closed all the supplies together with this  customers were required not to buy anything from these companies,this caused the total and immediate cessation of all forms of economic income. All bank credits and all production orders were canceled.

The administrative situation of the group was critical. Andrea Rossi was arrested, from prison could no longer do anything to save the company, in addition to this the huge media campaign permanently destroys the image is Andrea Rossi, the value of the companies brands, both plants and Omar Petroldragon, that until recently were assessed about 50 billion lire (growing exponentially) and gave work to 150 employees, was consequently reset.

There is no need to describe the psychological state of Andrea Rossi: covered of warrants, locked in the country’s prisons, where every day watched TV shows that ridicule his figure and the work of many years, public events took place against his plants Omar and Petroldragon, where production capacity was permanently canceled and where large quantities of raw materials, ready to be processed into fuel oil and products in sale, became cemeteries of thousands of tons of toxic waste.

Ing. Andrea Rossi was unable to shout to the world that there is waste and there are many, but not there, this was not the result of a fraud against the environment and community, it was not a speculation on the disposal, material were there waiting to be processed and transformed, and there were many in order to satisfy the demand of customers. 

This confirmed that the market had a favorable opinion on the quality of the work and, above all, demonstrated that people had already managed to overcome the prejudice tied to this “magical product”, thanks to Andrea Rossi years of work, injury, humiliations, fights.

For sure any refinery if closed, looks like a huge container of toxic waste, not refined material to be processed.

Even the contents of the tank of a car, if abandoned, would appear full of toxic waste, because the gasoline would no longer be part of the production process that moves the vehicle, it becomes useless for that process and, therefore, a toxic and dangerous waste, as per chemical characteristics of the gasoline itself.

Andrea Rossi - The Italian government u-turn

Due to this unexpected “legislative u-turn” of the Italian government, by which an activity, in which this state had always regular checking and quantificated taxes was suddenly declared illegal, by strange coincidence Omar Petroldragon establishments, found themselves to face a strong political/social alliance that declares Ing. Andrea Rossi an environmental polluter and tax evader.

Associations of citizens rose up against the polluter Rossi, this was the beginning of a smear campaign which would destroy the people, companies and all the work carried out until that moment.

With hindsight, it has to be noted the coincidence in historical dates between the war against the Ing. Andrea Rossi, a real big competitor in the petroleum products, thanks to work and studies conducted in Omar and Petroldragon, and the decision by the Camorra organizations to firmly enter into the business of waste, aiming to gain a monopoly of waste treatment, that would be silted in Campania underground with consequent pollution of groundwater and soil for agriculture.

This way of work, these historic times, result of the activity of several Camorra groups can be easily documented by the texts and the writings of famous authors who, today, manage to find a new truth and cover up the mysteries of the past.

Here is that the waste for processing in Petroldragon and Omar, for the production of precious fuel oil, became the raw material of speculators. At the same time, the work of Ing. Andrea Rossi, became the cause of many lost earnings, he is seen as a significant enemy for those who aim to be the only one who can play around with the waste products from Northern Italy.

Andrea Rossi - The U-turn of Petroldragon

Until 1987 the waste treated by Petroldragon for the production of fuel oil, was considered second matter, this means waste from processing of raw materials or other materials resulting from the recovery and recycling of waste, all products that comes out from these materials did not need any permission for waste disposal.

Without any warning and any explanation, all second materials similar to those obtained and used by Petroldragon for their work begin to be considered toxic waste, consequently, all products derived therefrom were considered toxic waste; acquisition, storage, handling of such matters and such products suddenly began to be under the obligation of the necessary permits and government concessions. 

The Petroldragon that did not have permits or licenses for waste treatment, since they never were requested, and had always been regular from the Public Authorities point of view, suddenly, started to be considered an illegal and not authorized activity. Following to a legislative decree, in a very short time all the equipment, were put under sequestration, storage tanks, that had always contained the raw material, become illegal dump of toxic waste.

From this moment on and for many years to follow, Ing. Andrea Rossi was subject to an endless number of arrests and prosecutions.

It is interesting to notice that since the beginning of the business all the products arrived as raw material and all the purchases of final products from establishments Petroldragon and Omar, had always been subject to rigorous control by the Guard of Finance, since they have a production tax. This means that all in and out waste loads of products had been steadily and continuously sampled and analyzed by the Ministry of Finance.

During its period of activity -Petroldragon Omar paid the state more than 2 billion Lire  in taxes, since the product worked had always been considered a fuel, subject to a specific production Tax (on fuels, in fact).

It’s quite paradoxical the fact that for years the Italian state has collected billions of Lire from companies Rossi in taxes, this confirms the total acceptance of the belonging of this products to the fuel category, with fuel tax. Then, even backward in time, a law was issued  to confirm that activity was illegal while it was first recognized as regular and all taxes were paid.

In this way the Italian state seems to be an accomplice in a conspiracy “criminal association”, since the beginning fully aware, regulator and controller.

Andrea Rossi - The evaluation of Omar-Petroldragon

Petroldragon work in crude oil production and Omar refining of the final products, allowed Ing. Andrea Rossi to start thinking to realize a dream: the creation of a fuel product similar to that of motor vehicle that had so power and importance among energy sources in the Italian economy.

In Ing. Rossi’s plants began to take shape the idea testing the possibility of moving cars and transportation in general with the proven reprocess of waste human society, rather than with derivatives of black gold, and to start speaking about this in public.

In the squares of the refinery a small race track length of about one kilometer was built on experimental basis. There, some of the old Fiat 131 cars with no license plates began to turn powered by a fuel substitute for diesel oil, made from food waste.

In 1993 was born the Petroldragon racing team with Alfa Romeo, which introduced its own single-seat racing in Formula 3.

The car always placed in mid-table. No ambition in racing, but this car powered by an oil derived from waste, was able to compete with cars powered by the most common petroleum products, this was a proof that asserted the product of Andrea Rossi as a real alternative to fossil fuels.

Andrea Rossi, Petroldragon and Omar are the pioneer of the research in this field, after many years led to the production of today’s biodiesel, now regularly used in diesel fuels.

At this moment the Omar-Petroldragon was evaluated at around 50 billion lire by expert economists.

Andrea Rossi -Petrol Dragon and associated companies

To ensure a continuous supply of such raw material (waste), the Petroldragon issued a complex supply network, stipulating contracts with the main Italian companies that produced large amount of waste that, in type and quality, best suited the transformation processes created by Andrea Rossi.

The type of collected waste was essentially made from waste of industrial organic materials such as plastics, rubber, waste solvents, waste food, etc.

Among the many Petroldragon customers could be counted Unicem, Cementificio di Merone, Lombardi Solventi (solvents), Cartiera di Sora (paper mill), etc.., these companies used the Petroldragon product, refined to Omar, as fuel or as raw material for the production of solvents.

Petroldragon products selling price was less than 30%, compared to similar products on the market, but it had a fossil derivation.

Petroldragon’s work was constantly supported by advice from the Politecnico of Milan, with which Petroldragon signed a research contract.

In particular, Prof. Paolo Centola, specialized in chemical plants, took care of this collaboration from the Polytechnic side.

Andrea Rossi -the acquisition of Omar Refinery

From the beginning, Andra Rossi’s invention permitted to transform organic waste into oil, which sold to companies specialized in refining, allowed to get commonly used products such as fuel oils and solvents. Therefore Petroldragon typical customers were always represented by refineries.

In 1990 Ing. Andrea Rossi began to imagine the importance of his invention, all the  possibilities of its applications, once widespread in detail, and to think about the high interest he would acquire in the whole world. He decided to work directly on the elaboration of the final product, with a financial investment of over 4 billion Lire with a remarkable debit with many banks he bought Omar refinery.

The Omar was well suited to work Petroldragon products since it had historically been a lubricating oil refinery, it had a vacuum distillation column completely made of stainless steel, this instrument had a big value since was very important in processing product.

Treating oil coming from Petroldragon, in a short time Omar became an independent producer of finished products such as fuel, oil and solvents, first made by other companies.

Andrea Rossi -big news in media. Got help from President Jimmy Carter

The news about the product quickly reached the media, which praise its potential right from the beginning. 

On television the national news , such as TG1,talked about it, on paper, Il Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica, Il Sole 24 Ore, Il Giorno, Il Giornale and almost all the provincial newspapers, many magazines such as Espresso, Panorama, Oggi, Gente and other wrote  about it. The news of Andrea Rossi procedure was reported by nearly all the major Italian newspapers.

Soon, the product made by Petroldragon took the name of Refluopetrolio.

The news came even overseas, where U.S. President Jimmy Carter, showed his interest in technology, and soon offered to Andrea Rossi a permanent visa for entry in the United States, he hoped to convince him to move to the U.S. to further develop his work. He accepted the invitation, but he stayed only a few weeks in Washington, as Andrea Rossi was still convinced he could refine his invention in the mother country.

In 1983 Andrea Rossi, who has already achieved success, further developed his idea, after a ten months work and a financial investment of half a billion lire, he realized a facility that produced twenty tons a day of fuel oil, transforming one hundred tons of organic waste.

Andrea Rossi and the start of Petrol Dragon

Fuel from Waste - the birth of Petrol Dragon

In 1978 Andrea Rossi, continues his passion for research and innovation, in a social and historical context where the problem of energy sources was particularly topical, he thought about the possibility of turning waste of organic origin in a liquid very similar to oil that is daily extracted from the deepest layers of earth.

It is common knowledge that plant and animal organic waste, over time, are processed into oil due to very high pressure from the force of gravity and to the temperature gradients stemming from a core meltdown perpetually glowing in the center of the Earth. At the same time Andrea Rossi thought about the possibility of artificially creating the necessary environmental conditions for this process, he would speed up chemical and physical transformations that, in nature, to be implemented take whole geological era, he would like to simulate the work of our planet that takes few million years.

Many difficulties and technical obstacles were been faced to turn this insight to a practice, repeatable and convenient procedure, long study and many attempts, led to the development of a technology with which it was able to simulate the phenomenon that occurs in the center of the earth, the waste was subjected to many pressures and differences of temperature in a reducing atmosphere, until the mixture of fuel oil, coal and gas was obtained (the gas was used to supply the same power process).
This innovative technology was patented by the Patent Office Cicogna of Milan in 1978.

For those interested in deepen the events about the difficult beginnings and to have a more complete view of the process, may read the following books:

Oil from waste, Sugarco Editrice, Milan 1980

In the name of oil, GEI-Rizzoli, Milan 1983, reprinted in 1985 by Mondadori

Since the beginning, the revolutionary potentialities of this project was clear and in a few months Petroldragon (the name of the company formed to develop and implement this technology), with a machine still rather makeshift and handmade in the execution, produced two tons of oil from ten tons of organic wastes, this is part of municipal waste consists of paper, wood, plastic, food and the like.

In 1978, with an investment by Andrea Rossi, who has already reached several hundred million of Lire, the technology of oil production from the waste took final shape and the transformer machinery was working in order.

Andrea Rossi - The story

This site is dedicated to the Italian inventor Andrea Rossi.

Andrea Rossi was born on 03.06.1950 in Milan.

During school holidays, from 1957 to 1968, he worked with his father Luigi in his machine-shop, specialized in metal carpentry. He learns how to use all the major carpentry machines (welding machines, lathes, benders, shears, etc…). He learns to design and build many kind of machines and to organize the work in the factory.

During this period no special things happen, Andrea Rossi spent at least 8 hours a day studying and playing sports (athletics, Italian champion of road race in 1970, in 1969 the  junior world record of 24 hours race).

In school he had facility for physical science and chemistry, he registered at the Philosophy college to improve his knowledge of science and its origin from a mathematical-philosophical point of view; he pursued a particular course of  Philosophy of Science, designed by prof. Ludovico Geymonat.

In 1973, Andrea Rossi graduated in Philosophy at the University of Milan with a thesis on Albert Einstein Theory of Relativity and the correlation with the Phenomenology of Husserl (110/110).

Starting from the beginning of his career Andrea Rossi continued his researches related to systems for recovering energy from waste.

In 1979, Andrea Rossi will get the degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Kensington, California (USA) thanks to many professional credits earned at the University and lots of registered patents since the first years of his professional career.

In 1974, he registered a patent for an incineration system with post-combustion turbine.

He studied about rivers depuration (see the book “The incineration of waste and rivers depuration”, published in Milan by Tecniche Nuove in 1978), in 1977 a patent for a new filter cleaner at high temperatures was registered, in defense of intellectual property, a lawsuit about a patent infringement was filed against Bayer Leverkusen and was won.

In order to product patented equipment, inside “La Metallotecnica”,a factory owned by the family, Andrea Rossi established a division called Dragon specialized in the production of waste incinerators with energy recovery and smoke depurators plants.

In order to compete with worldwide competitors and to obtain even better results, Andrea Rossi continues his rigorous study on use and development of the chemical and physical processes related to these technologies. Results are widely discussed in the book “The incineration of waste and rivers depuration”, published in Milan by Tecniche Nuove in 1978, that has also been used at the Politecnico of Milan as an auxiliary text in the Chemical Plants class.

In the years between 1971 and 1996, with energy recovery the Dragon makes, some 1500 waste incineration plants in the world, and between 1975 and 1996, produces approximately 200 depuration treatment plants.