In the first, talented and ambitious experts who excel in their own technical fields often run companies on a project-to-project basis from unsuitable ‘make-do’ premises. They also lack the skills, strategies – and vital seed corn funding – needed to take brilliant innovations to new customers.

In the second, the same companies work from premises that can accommodate their planned growth. Supported by ‘professional’ funding strategies, management and marketing systems, and a clear understanding of their sales opportunities, they are ready to win in national and global markets.

Lancashire-based isentra designs, manufactures, monitors and maintains large ‘transcritical CO2’ refrigeration plant, heating and hot water systems which can include heat recovery. Typically, food chain-based companies were CO2 refrigeration technology early adopters for freezer, cold store and blast-chilling amongst other uses. As an alternative to environmentally-destructive HFC refrigerants they can meet new F-Gas legislation.

The same technology has been engineered and developed into advanced CO2 heat pumps for space heating, hot water systems, and heat recovery for the commercial/industrial marketplace, whether that be retrofit or new-build. (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fluorinated-gas-f-gas-guidance-for-users-producers-and-traders).

Accrington-based RedCAT is helping Isentra as an established company to restructure itself internally and externally to provide competitive commercial services across UK and global markets.

RedCAT (Red Rose County’s Centre for Advanced Technology) helps businesses to cross the ‘Valley of Death,’ or ‘Chasm’, commercialisation gap with a twin-focus on creating measurable economic outputs and solving critical environmental problems.

RedCAT’s methodology, which includes embedding experienced technology experts deep within key company projects, is central to isentra’s expansion – and as such is a practical example of RedCAT’s four fundamental growth elements in action:

Innovation considers feasibility and viability, with market and competitor analyses, plus finding grant funding, partners to host demonstrator units, early adopter customers, and global roll-out opportunities.

Ventures meanwhile looks at follow-on VC/equity opportunities for the critical early Chasm period.

Scale then works with local authorities to find manufacturing sites and set up local supply chains.

Advocacy similarly secures high level backing for technology commercialisation across the wider UK.

Unlike ordinary refrigeration and heat pump firms that may manufacture 50-70KW products, isentra typically designs and fabricates heat-pump and hot water solutions an order of magnitude larger – ranging from 75KW to 2MW – one-off plants based on transcritical CO2 heat pump technology, and has worked closely with Innovate Edge, AMRC North West, and the region’s universities.

However, in 2022 RedCAT’s Innovation and Advocacy recognised that the company had outstanding USPs but needed to raise its Lancashire, UK, and global profile. As RedCAT embedded technology and commercialisation specialist Ian Trow explains, “Our guiding role since then has been to show how the ship should be steered and identify which UK catapult agencies can help them most.”

He adds, “RedCAT’s involvement is about structuring and restructuring isentra to move from what can fairly be described as ‘swimming from one project to another’ to a culture of mature growth based on managing the business and its investment processes professionally.”

“This has included understanding isentra’s full sales potential, relocating from a small workshop and remote office to a proper industrial home, analysing how its large-scale bespoke products are put together, and increasing its team to include experienced purchasing and procurement staff.

“We also need to know what scaling-up look like,” Ian adds. “Our current focus is on strategy to support scaling – including scaled-up communications. We are working to create an 18-month road map that includes a major financial injection – and how that effects a medium-sized business.”

A parallel priority is minimising any risks of failure that could come from, for example, the collapse of a single large project – or running out of money during the lengthy process of equity fund-raising.

Ironically, a potential counter-risk could be a lack of manufacturing capacity should all current order prospects mature together – typical challenges for expanding companies.

Ian’s summary is that “our RedCAT goal is to help the innovative dynamic isentra team get through their growing pains and fulfil their scale-up potential for the low carbon economy of tomorrow”

While current work is UK-based, isentra has a keen eye on global opportunities. A team went to COP26 in Glasgow (2021), COP27 in Egypt (2022) and was part of the RedCAT active business contingent at COP28 in Dubai (2023).

The company also sees major opportunities for its technological advances in the UK convenience retail sector. That might involve refrigeration, plus, public and private buildings such as hotels and leisure centres with hot water and heat recovery systems, and large-scale district heat networks. A major company case study has been the University of Oxford Wolfson College project.

By default, isentra’s technology can be used in heat pumps and hot water systems to decarbonise heat as an alternative to using gas and large space heaters. This could be linked to recovery from intense heat sources, from industry, or captured geothermal heat. isentra’s advanced technology can claim heat from multiple sources, including air source, ground source and water source, this can operate as a dual system.

Operations director Stephen Allen says, “isentra is a forward-thinking company with huge growth ambitions in the renewable sector. Our technology is at the forefront of innovation and is a key component in helping organisations achieve their net zero goals.”

In 2006, isentra’s founders recognised that a massive change in the refrigeration industry was imminent, but also that a real step-change is needed to make the multiple benefits of this mature clean technology mainstream.

For the technically minded, the working fluids in transcritical CO2 systems go through subcritical and supercritical states as both a liquid and a gas that is indistinguishable as either state. To monitor performance and energy use, isentra plants are also IoT enabled and interface easily with existing BMS.