In early 2003, Vito Altavilla and Robert Yeggy (VARY) brought their diverse backgrounds together in an effort that focused on recovery of bitumen from the Utah oil sands deposits.

After careful consideration of the established Clark hot water process, it was determined that this process was as refined and as efficient as possible and that efforts to add to the scholarship invested in the Clark process would not be effective.

The two inventors therefore turned their focus to the development of a totally different and very unconventional recovery process; one that did not create any emulsions and did not include the use of diluents or solvents anywhere in the extraction process. They began working on a means for preventing emulsion formation and solids entrainment utilizing a high-shear separation process in concert with the specifically developed chemistry (CAC-24).

The diversity of their chemistry backgrounds led Altavilla and Yeggy to bench test various chemical mixtures on Utah oil sands using a high speed disperser. By fall of 2004, a proprietary supersaturated aqueous chemical formulation was developed. The formulation, a carbon agglomerating chemistry, or CAC-24, permits bitumen recovery from tailings, froth, oil sands and petro sludge.