Scientist’s Fiberglass Composite Is Promoted for $1-Billion Tunnel : Invention: Charles E. Kaempen’s mile-high monument and chimney never got off the ground. His proposal to build a seabed link between Europe and Africa is his next challenge.

Scientist Charles E. Kaempen has never been one for modest proposals. In the ‘60s, he wanted to use the special fiberglass composite he invented to build a mile-high monument to President John F. Kennedy. Later, he suggested a mile-high chimney that would suck pollution into the upper stratosphere.

Now, he hopes to use his material for a $1-billion tunnel connecting Europe and Africa at the Strait of Gibraltar. Kaempen’s associates boast that he will have a private audience with King Hassan II of Morocco next week during a conference on the long-discussed crossing.

But the mundane business of selling pipes and storage tanks made of the special material has not been easy for the 62-year-old engineer, despite the impressive claims he makes about his composite’s superiority over steel. His latest company--Anaheim-based Kaempen USA--is now preparing for a public offering, but with no current revenue, it may be a tough sell.

Kaempen’s business acumen, in fact, appears to be considerably more modest than his grandiose proposals. Company spokesman Todd Block vaguely describes some of Kaempen’s previous business associates as “people who weren’t quite as honest and up front as they seemed” in explaining why, 20 years after the Kaempen composite was initially developed, it still hasn’t found a market.

A further explanation, though, may lie in the fact that the market for fiberglass pipes and storage tanks is highly competitive. Owens-Corning Fiberglas is the market leader for tanks, and fiberglass pipe vendors include A.O. Smith, Ameron and Centron.

Furthermore, Kaempen only recently developed the patented coupling device that is necessary to make the composite piping practical in the field.

“It’s innovative,” said Joseph Plecnik, a Cal State Long Beach professor who knows Kaempen’s work, in describing the Kaempen composite. “Whether it’s feasible or not is another matter.”

He described Kaempen as “a futuristic thinker, to put it mildly. A practical person might dismiss him.”

Although the Kaempen USA’s business plan refers to a wide range of earlier projects, as well as several previous incarnations of the company, the true extent and nature of Kaempen’s previous business operations is unclear. Kaempen would not agree to an interview in advance of the press conference to discuss his trip to Morocco scheduled for today.

But he’s certainly confident of the worth of his technologies: The company’s audited financial statement in the business plan shows $200 million in equity, which chief financial officer John V. Legge said refers to the value of its patents.

Block said the company would try to set up six regional joint-venture factories to manufacture the pipes and tanks, retaining a majority stake in each one. The pipes are supposedly three times as strong as steel, cost half as much, and don’t corrode.

Bruce Sauer, lab director of the Orange County Materials Testing Lab in Santa Ana, said his firm had tested the products and that “whatever he claimed they would do, they did.” Ed Anderson, general manager of Century Piping Systems in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, called the Kaempen pipe “excellent--there’s a tremendous market here for that type of product.”

Anderson had sold Kaempen composite pipes built by a company called General Composites of Edmonton, Alberta, which had a license from Kaempen. But the company went into receivership. Kaempen officials were unclear as to what other firms had licensed the technology.

Similarly, Legge was unable to say exactly what the status of the public offering was. In the tradition of Kaempen himself, in fact, both he and Block were much more eager to talk about the Gibraltar tunnel project than about the nitty-gritty of the pipe and tank business.

And just as the monument to Kennedy and the anti-pollution chimney never came to fruition, the tunnel under the Strait of Gibraltar looks like a long shot.

The project to connect Spain and Morocco was approved by the two countries in 1979, but little progress has been made since then. King Hassan II said last year that he expected the crossing of the strait--which is 10 miles wide at its narrowest point--to be accomplished with a bridge rather than a tunnel.

The conference Kaempen will attend next week will explore a variety of technical and financial solutions, and he contends that his tunnel, which would sit on the sea floor, could be built for $1 billion against $5 billion for a bridge or an excavated tunnel.

But if the century-long effort to build a tunnel beneath the English Channel is any guide, the Europe-Africa link won’t be built any time soon. And when it is built, it will likely use proven technologies and cost far more than anticipated.