Boost for low carbon technology

The UK government has awarded a grant of £1 million to fund low carbon technology, it was announced late last week.


A group of companies each received the boost from the Carbon Trust to speed the technologies’ development through to commercial reality and accelerate the UK’s move to a low carbon economy.

Projects including a new generation of LEDs, energy efficient kilns and steam trap performance sensors have all received financial backing from the Carbon Trust’s Applied Research scheme.

“The diverse nature of these technologies clearly demonstrates the exciting low carbon innovation work taking place in the UK today. These technologies have the potential to make significant carbon savings and to be commercially very successful,” said Garry Staunton, Head of Low Carbon Research at the Carbon Trust.

“These technologies will play a vital part in moving the UK towards a low carbon economy.”

The seven projects to receive funding are:

  • Aluminium smelting technology with the potential to reduce energy consumption by up to 20% – Coventry University

  • Technology to explode paint into moulds, eliminating the need for paint shops in the manufacture of plastic components – Warwick Manufacturing Group

  • Energy efficient kilns, which could reduce the energy used in the manufacture of ceramics – Horizon Ceramics

  • Natural ventilation systems for large buildings with the potential of halving the energy used by conventional mechanically ventilated buildings – e-stack Ltd.

  • Testing of new fully automated biomass combined heat and power unit – Biomass CHP Ltd.

  • Steam trap performance sensors with the potential for reducing carbon emissions by more than 750,000 tonnes over ten years – Spirax Sarco Ltd.

  • New generation of ultra bright LEDs with improved life expectancy and massive carbon savings over traditional lighting – GlowLed Ltd.

    Over the past four years, the Carbon Trust has invested more than £17 million in projects that they believe to be both commercially viable and demonstrate the potential to reduce UK carbon emissions.

    A new call for proposals is now open until 17th August 2007.

    Dana Gornitzki

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