C-Capture, a spin out company from the University of Leeds, received a total of £150,000 as the Shell Springboard National Winner for its technology that scrubs CO2 from different industrial gas streams.
The four strong team, made up of two chemists and two engineers, worked to develop solvent systems for the removal of CO2 from gas streams. These could be from large scale point sources such as power stations to smaller scale applications such as biogas upgrading technologies.
The team describe the process as a highly effective, low energy approach for the removal of CO2 from methane gas streams, particularly biogas from anaerobic digestion and landfill. Such upgrading of biogas, C-Capture said, is very important to increase the methane content to levels suitable for renewable energy applications, including electricity generation, as a transport fuel and for injection into the gas grid.
C-Capture hopes that the Shell Springboard funding will help establish the company in the biogas upgrading technology market.
Professor Christopher Rayner, from C-Capture, told PE: “It is a wonderful feeling to have won the Springboard competition. It is key at this crucial stage of the company, which already has a demonstrator running, to bring the technology to commercialisation. To do so we need publicity and funding, and this award provides both.”
The company’s longer term objective is to apply the technology to industrial Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) applications and fossil fuel power stations.
The winner was chosen by an independent panel of judges, comprising of some of the leading experts in the low-carbon and enterprise sectors, including Professor Samuel Fankhauser, co-director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change, and the Environment and Martin Powell, head of urban development, Siemens.
Powell said: “The innovative enterprises coming through this year's Shell Springboard programme are exactly the sort of technologies we need to accelerate the journey to low-carbon cities of the future. It is encouraging to see such a breadth of inventions and I wish all the finalists success in bringing their products onto the market."
C-Capture saw off competition from a total of 140 other entries from across the country, which was pared down to a shortlist of six finalists:
-ZERO Carbon Future: created Minibems, a heating control and monitoring system for all elements of a heat network producing 35% cost and emissions savings.
-Epicam: developed Liquid Air Energy Storage and Regeneration (LAESAR) technology that offers new means of liquid air energy storage and power regeneration for delivery to grids at times of peak loading and premium pricing.
-NVP Energy: created Low Temperature Anaerobic Digestion (LtAD) technology that can turn wastewater treatment from being an operational expense into a revenue generator.
Water Engine Technologies: technology that harnesses the benefits of low head hydropower, which does not require dam construction.
Innova Ltd: FlettnerFlow technology that acts as an air diverter and could drive up to 17% fuel efficiency in heavy vehicles.
Meanwhile, Tom Robinson from Adaptavate was named the Shell LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneur of the Year winner and received an award of £25,000 for Breathaboard, a bio-based building product made of 75% plant matter which locks carbon into the fabric of buildings, helping to mitigate CO2-driven climate change.
Robinson, managing director of Adaptavate said: “We are looking forward to getting our high performing bio-composite materials off the ground, and the award gives us the financial support and credibility boost to make these plans a reality.”
Adaptavate fought off competition from five other entrants, including Adam Routledge’s Edible Bug Farm and Solveiga Pakaštaitė, the developer bio-reactive food expire label called Bump Mark, which won the Shell Chairman Special Award (separate to the Springboard and LiveWIRE awards) worth £5,000.
Shell UK chairman, Erik Bonino, said: “The Shell Springboard National Winner, C-Capture, and Shell LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneur of the Year winner, Tom Robinson from Adaptavate, are inspiring examples of how combining bright ideas with an entrepreneurial approach can help us meet the UK’s low carbon challenge, without compromising our economic prosperity.”
Shell Springboard has awarded more than £3.6 million direct funding to 92 low-carbon entrepreneurs since 2005, resulting in more than 250 new jobs and an annual combined turnover of £60 million.