To set the ball rolling, RedCAT helped Thornton-based O-Hx to build a working demonstration unit with pharmaceutical company Quotient Sciences at Alnwick in Northumberland where prospective customers can now see a ‘cold energy’ storage plant actually operating rather than just hearing about a theoretical concept.

This has been a crucial step forward to commercialisation, explains Commercial Director David Grundy.

Setting up demonstrators is a major financial and technical barrier for many innovators. RedCAT overcomes this by providing early grant funding to convert promising prototypes into pilot plants.

This takes place inside a ‘wrap’ of commercialisation support – with embedded technical experts, plus financial and other professional inputs – to move product development forward and, importantly, act as an equity raising catalyst.

The result is well-funded and equipped organisations and companies that can compete in world markets. In the case of O-Hx, a £150,000 grant provided vital capital needed to build early-stage ‘kit’.

Organic Heat Exchangers, which describes itself as a ‘technical development’ company, produces through its ‘EnergiVault’ system perfectly round tiny ‘binary ice’ crystals that do not clump together, flow as a liquid, store vulnerable but valuable refrigeration loads, but melt rapidly when needed due to their huge surface area.

Client onsite renewable energy systems, particularly solar, tend to work best in the morning, whereas cooling for production processes may peak later in the day. By smoothing out supply and demand, EnergiVault, which blends seamlessly with grid electricity, optimises costs.

Commercial EnergiVault units, which can be powered by renewable energy and fitted inside a standard 20-foot storage container, are able to store and then discharge 1MWh of cold energy in less than two hours, mainly to supplement air conditioning systems.

By charging at a trickle rate, they reduce running costs and carbon emissions, while improving reliability and scalability. They can also run in tandem with existing mains-powered refrigeration systems to boost chiller capacity as an alternative to more costly capex upgrades.

While not neglecting colder temperate countries, EnergiVault is ideally suited for warmer locations. O-Hx is investigating markets in Singapore, Australia, India, and the Cayman Islands, as well as Europe and America. It has also put a powerful conceptual suggestion to the developers of the new megacity of Neom on the northern Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia. Also known as The Line, its linear layout may cover 26,500 km2 (10,200 sq. mi).

Some 70% of Saudi Arabia’s electricity is used for cooling, and O-Hx’ suggestion is to chill the whole Neom development with a district cooling system based on its technology housed in a tunnel system beneath the city. Some people would contribute cooling commercially while other take it out.

Going further, it foresees future hotels, large buildings, and flat blocks built on an underground ice basement. Meanwhile, O-Hx is developing a wide range of different sized EnergiVault units.

Closer to home, it is talking to one NHS hospital that cannot access enough grid electricity about supplying 20 units to end a reliance on diesel generators that could last for ten years.

RedCAT (the Red Rose County’s Centre for Advanced Technology) helps companies across the so-called ‘Valley of Death’ to successful commercialisation when they are most vulnerable.

“The RedCAT team is helping us to create a localised supply chain and network of potential regional manufacturers,” explains David.“ RedCAT MD, Stuart Thompson, reviewed all our investment documents from an experienced professional perspective.

“We were also introduced to AMRC North West (Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre) which is working with us closely to raise our crystallisation process efficiency,” he adds.

RedCAT’s support in setting up a commercial demonstrator unit also helped O-Hx to understand what customers actually want, which was quite different to its original assumptions.

“However, what we really appreciated was the many introductions RedCAT made for us. Taking a concept to market successfully is a long, hard, slow slog. RedCAT knows that. As well as financial support, we valued their collegiate approach and continuous fully funded time and support from specialists.”

He adds, “Six months ago our headache was selling. Now – with further RedCAT support – it is knowing how to manufacture enough units to service a potentially £7 billion+ world market. We are now sales-ready!”