UAPA recently interviewed Matt Nicosia, Vivakor’s chair and CEO. Vivakor was founded in March 2008; Matt has been the CEO since 2011. The company’s name reflects its emphasis on being environmentally responsible. As Matt said, “The life of the earth is at the core of our technologies.” Two parts of Vivakor’s work are of interest to the asphalt industry. First, Vivakor is working toward a circular carbon economy by using hydrocarbon extraction and remediation. Second, Vivakor is developing smart road sensors that will be a big part of its future. UAPA membership has been valuable to Vivakor. “We have received support and encouragement from UAPA’s leadership and members,” said Matt. “Utah has a close-knit asphalt market with strong producers. UAPA has given us information about testing groups and different resources that have proven valuable in getting our products up to performance grade and how best to commercialize them.” HYDROCARBON REMEDIATION Performance grade asphalt binder is becoming more difficult to source as the number of refineries has steadily decreased over the last few decades. Their focused production has been on delivering fuel. Through Vivakor’s hydrocarbon remediation work, it was determined that their process could also successfully separate oil sand material to create a performance grade asphalt cement and therefore help meet the Our objectives are to produce asphalt cement out of every oil sands or remediation program in which we are involved, creating a pioneering, Utah-based asphalt product. burgeoning roadway paving demands. The company has a proprietary method that uses a closed-loop, environmentally friendly process that uses no water to successfully separate hydrocarbons from the soil. Matt said, “We want to continue supplying a performancegrade product out of the Uintah Basin. Our objectives are to produce asphalt cement out of every oil sands or remediation program in which we are involved, creating a pioneering, Utahbased asphalt product. We still produce fuel products, but producing asphalt maximizes value in our projects and is better for the planet. Also, using hydrocarbons for roads instead of fuel will be a natural transition as cars go electric.” AN ENERGY HARVESTING SYSTEM FOR SMART ROADS Vivakor is working with TBT Group to design an energy harvesting sensor system for smart roads using advanced piezoelectric, piezoceramic, and dielectric materials. “We see two races: one is the race toward EVs, and the other is toward a smart infrastructure,” said Matt. “We aren’t going Continued on page 36 SPOTLIGHT: VIVAKOR 35
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