Innovate UK
Oaktec: Innovate 2015 Peer to Peer award winners
A small gas-powered engine developed by Lancaster-based engineering R&D company Oaktec has been judged the innovation most likely to attract investor backing at Innovate 2015.
Fellow entrepreneurs and delegates were given novelty banknotes and asked to choose which company with a particularly innovative product and service they would be most likely to invest in.
It was Oaktec who attracted most cash with Pulse-R, a small, four-stroke piston engine that is the product of 15 years development. It is specially designed to run on gas fuels compressed natural gas (CNG), liquid petroleum gas (LPG) and now bio-gas.
Co-founder and chief executive Paul Andrews said:
Its the worlds first small dedicated gas engine. Bio-gas is a recent innovation, something weve been working on with Innovate UK.
Pulse-R takes conventional engine design and looks at it in a lateral way and does everything slightly differently. That gives significant benefits in efficiency: low emissions and, critically for the market, its very cheap to manufacture.
Winning this award was a big surprise to the Oaktec team, as Paul admitted.
Its a good feeling! Weve had lots of interest in how we are going to commercialise it, how we will manufacture it. And a lot of people have been telling us what they think the opportunities are.
View more stories from businesses successful with Innovate UK support