First published in Cleantech magazine, January/February 2010. Copyright Cleantech Investor 2010
Multi-disciplinary approach bears fruit
by Elisabeth Jeffries
The first in a series of features focusing on cleantech intellectual property emerging from universities.
People are used to dry cleaners, but most would never dream of an odourless, waterless washing machine in their own homes. These habits are set to be challenged when a new model hits the white goods market, constructed by Xeros, a Leeds University spin-out company. If all goes to plan, the company should see its first batch roll off the production line in mid-2011, according to Bill Westwater, Xeros’ CEO.
The process uses nylon polymer beads in the washing machine’s drum. These absorb dirt right into their centre when they are tumbled with damp clothes. The nylon polymer has been selected because of its absorbent properties when humid. “It needs only a tiny amount of water [90% less than in a conventional machine],” states Westwater. If widely adopted, the process would save millions of tonnes of water as well as energy for tumble drying. However, the new washing machine is still in its prototype phase, as the research team continues to test different types of polymer compounds, the size of beads, different detergents and a range of mechanical actions for the machine.
“The machine design needs to complete its rapid prototyping phase, then be tested in the real and demanding world of commercial laundry premises. Only when the system has been successfully proven and fully optimised will it be available for sale,” says Westwater. Xeros is looking for new investors. “It will need more funding, probably a partner that can help take it to market. It will probably need more development capital,” remarks Alison Fielding, a director of Techtran Group, a company that is helping commercialise IP generated from Leeds University. Techtran is a subsidiary of IP Group Plc which is listed on the London Stock Exchange.Leeds’ long engineering history in one of the UK’s most important manufacturing regions means that it is one of the most dominant British universities developing IP for the cleantech sector. As the environmental agenda has heated up over recent years, Leeds has been well placed to develop its skills in solving problems from nuclear waste disposal to biomass use in power stations. The university has recently made a point of strengthening multidisciplinary teams through its Energy & Resources Research Institute, which has this year received funding for an interdisciplinary doctoral training programme. As Professor Bill Gale, head of another Leeds research body, the Earth, Energy, Environment Institute (E3) puts it: “Many problems don’t fit across boundaries of traditional disciplines, energy being one of them. None of the pieces works in isolation.”
This multidisciplinary approach may have been partially responsible for the Xeros breakthrough, as the idea originated in textile design research rather than engineering. Xeros has generated an interesting innovation, but one which is also risky. As pro-vice chancellor Professor Richard Williams explains: “Highly innovative and disruptive technologies may not always attract conventional venture capital funds - why? Because they are so disruptive and, like many novel products relating to climate adaptation, [their] market development has heavy reliance on human factors ([people saying] ‘can I really believe my clothes can be clean and fresh if they have not been soaked in fresh water?’)". The type of backing needed for ventures in these kinds of groundbreaking technologies, Professor Williams suggests, comes from a more patient investor or a funder with a philanthropic approach - where the investor recognises value in the societal change achieved, rather than short term profit maximisation. “For clean technologies there is certainly a need for different types of proof of concept funds prior to undertaking commercialisation," he argues.
A major Leeds project in a completely different area also shows considerable promise. According to Professor Williams, a radical new method for making liquids more energy efficient could be only two years away from commercialisation through Leeds spin-out compay Dispersia. Energy savings from newer, smarter equipment which prevents heat from escaping are already commonplace. But the idea of saving energy in liquids is less common. The technology for more energy efficient liquids, developed at Leeds’ Institute of Particle Science and Engineering, is known as nanofluids. It involves introducing tiny carbon atoms to liquid, which are manipulated to allow heat to be transferred more efficiently. The technology has implications across the whole spectrum of human activity, from industry to central heating and solar energy. “There are big savings to be made in industrial applications,” says Williams. The first fields to benefit could include the automotive sector and power electronics, but it could also affect power generation, data centres, medical technology and other sectors.
Dispersia was set up to help clients apply the energy efficient liquids technology to their own needs. Companies would benefit through, for example, better system reliability, a reduction in plant (such as radiators or pipe work) size or weight, lower operating costs and energy losses, lower capital costs, and often also environmental benefits due to the increased thermal efficiencies. Dispersia has been working on different kinds of applications and has found an industrial partner. Trials are taking place to prove the formulation of the technology scale-up. According to Alison Fielding: “It is a well-funded company at the moment and is not looking for funds right now.” Dispersia has also received financing from Techtran Group.
Yorkshire’s legacy as the heart of a mining community continues to affect the university, which has carried out decades of research on coal production and combustion. Not surprisingly, this means Leeds has well developed expertise relating to carbon capture and storage. Professor Mohamed Pourkashanian, in charge of this research, says the university is looking at the problem from several angles. One approach is to try and ascertain whether the emissions content of coal-fired power plants can be altered. Scientists are testing oxyfuel combustion, in which the coal is burned using pure oxygen rather than air. Current coal power stations release the CO2 in a form mixed with about five times its volume of nitrogen, and oxygen from the air is used to burn the coal, making it harder to store than if oxyfuel combustion were used. Were that to happen, the CO2 would be concentrated and could be compressed into a dense liquid and squeezed into the pores between rock grains a kilometre or more underground.
Leeds scientists are also working on storage. Another new company, C-Capture, has evolved from clean coal research in this area. C-Capture managers say it has developed a new, more energy efficient way of extracting CO2 from exhaust gas streams so that it can be separated out and released into underground storage sites more safely, yet economically. This company is still at the incubator stage. A patent has been filed but is not yet published. However, Alison Fielding explains that: “If [the process] works, carbon capture can be done at a lower temperature, so it has economic importance.”
Encos, another company still at an early stage of development, has received £0.4 million in seed funding. Encos is developing methods to make construction materials from waste such as incinerator ash or waste vegetable oil and is carrying out trials to scale up its models. Glycerol, a by-product of biodiesel production, could be used as a binding agent in the process. “They want to work out the feasibility of making products of a suitably robust nature, because the construction industry has such tight specifications,” comments Alison Fielding.
Fielding says that Green Chemicals, one of Leeds’ more developed spin-out companies, could benefit from further funding. The company is developing more environmentally friendly alternative consumer products in the textile, paper and hair treatment and antimicrobial markets. This includes, for instance, a hair dye which lacks paraphenylenediamine (PPD), a product to which some people develop allergies. Green Chemicals is also working on a depilatory agent with a lower PH and odour than some supermarket alternatives.
The past year has proved trying for some of the Leeds cleantech companies. “Market conditions are tough but there’s a lot of interest in this sector, though people are more risk averse and looking for you to prove your case more,” remarks Fielding. Professor Richard Williams adds: “In the current economic climate, funding of spin-outs from universities has virtually ceased over the last nine months, so at present availability of capital is the biggest issue.”
Nevertheless, there is cause for optimism. Probably the most commercially advanced company to emerge using Leeds research and development in recent years, Slipstream Energy, has won the Young Innovative Company Award 2009. Its work has been backed by regional development agency Yorkshire Forward. New wind turbine designs could make a major difference to an industry often criticised for being relatively inefficient. The Slipstream team has tested the prototype of a new turbine design (using a vertical axis rather than the more usual horizontal axis), which it claims is more efficient than the conventional design. The UK feed-in tariff to be introduced in 2010 might lead to the emergence of a newer, broader market for the company’s product.
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