Investments
AWS Ecoplastics – Plastics Recycling
AWS originated as a trader of waste commodities. In 2007 the company invested in its first recycling facility in Hemswell, Lincolnshire to become a producer of flaked PET and HDPE for industrial grade applications. During 2008 the company invested in additional plant to enable it to produce a food grade extruded PET pellet. In addition to this, the company has business units focused on recycling agricultural plastic and also waste industrial PET. The plant has the capacity to process up to 100,000 tonnes per annum and is the largest of its kind in the UK.
Aquapharm – Marine Natural Products
Aquapharm is a marine natural products company that employs marine microbes and fungi, a very large untapped reservoir, to discover, isolate and culture new natural compounds through novel production systems. These bacteria and other microbes can result in new sources of products including nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, enzymes and fuel additives which are valuable for companies seeking new and better products. Aquapharm's key USP is its technology for isolation and culture of new products.
Earthcare Products – Refrigeration Technology
Earthcare was founded to provide end-users with a full complement of sustainable cooling products, from small refrigerators to large custom-built building services plant. There is growing pressure to limit the use of current HCF refrigerants due to their global warming effect, which is 1,200 times more powerful than that of carbon dioxide. Earthcare cooling use NIK ("Not-in-Kind") refrigerants in place of HCFs and has already established a market lead in this area. The company has also developed its own range of patent protected low carbon refrigerants.
Lysanda – Fuel & CO2 Saving Software
Lysanda produces the Eco-LogTM which helps reduce vehicle fleet running costs by providing highly accurate data on fuel consumption and wastage. Savings are made by improving driving behaviour using the in-vehicle driver aid and management reporting tools. Eco-LogTM has already demonstrated to a number of fleet customers considerable savings on wasted fuel and reductions in emissions.
Pyropure – Waste Technology
Pyropure's technology is used to eliminate waste at the point of creation. Pyropure destroys waste at the point of creation and then washes the residual carbon residue into the sewer system. This addresses the growing market for de-centralised waste disposal driven by rising landfill taxes and transportation costs. The company has successfully targeted customers in the clinical, care home and food retail sectors.
Q Chip – Microplant Technology
Q Chip Ltd, incorporated in October 2003, has developed a proprietary, patented micro-fluidic technology (MicroPlantTM) that enables high value pharmaceutical and life science products to be packaged in uniform polymer microspheres. The successful demonstration of the ability of Q Chip's MicroPlant system to package delicate biological molecules has already been demonstrated by the company's first product ReaX - for easy to use molecular diagnostics. Q Chip is also developing BiologiX - a proprietary drug delivery technology, which is addressing an unmet opportunity for sustained release, subcutaneous delivery of peptide and protein drugs.
