December 2007
	C-Tech Innovation Ltd Capenhurst Technology Park Capenhurst Chester CH1 6EH Tel: +44 (0) 151 347 2900 Fax: +44 (0) 151 347 2901 Email: info@ctechinnovation.com Web: www.ctechinnovation.com		In This Issue Stop Press: C-Tech Wins a Rushlight Award Technology Due Diligence Resource Efficiency KTN reaches North of the Border Nanotechnology & Collaborative Projects at C-Tech Resource Efficiency KTN Event In the Northwest? Get into Knowledge 2 Innovate New Starters

Stop Press: C-Tech Wins a Rushlight Award We are delighted to announce that we have just been awarded a Rushlight Award at the inaugural Rushlight Gala Awards Dinner that took place in London on December 10th 2007. The Rushlight Awards are new. They are designed to celebrate the significant achievements of UK and Irish technology, innovation and commerce in helping to address the key issues of climate change and waste management. These awards stand out as the only UK and Ireland wide awards for technology, innovation and commerce that have advanced society’s capabilities to live in a sustainable way. C-Tech's award is for our unique WEEE Management Software Analysis Tool, which allows an economic assessment of end of life options for electrical and electronic items (from a cost perspective) to be made. The tool analyses all types of Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE). The tool is based on a waste hierarchy approach and represents a powerful method of performing cost comparisons between the various options for WEEE at product end-of-life. Ged Barlow, C-Tech's Managing Director said "We are absolutely delighted to receive this award which confirms the role we are playing in waste management technologies. It is a justifiable reward for the hard work we are putting into this area." If you would like to know more about the WEEE management software analysis tool, contact us here. Technology Due Diligence Effective and through technical due diligence can mean the difference between a successful and ultimately profitable business investment and one that ends in frustration, disappointment and potentially even company failure. A wide range of skills and knowledge is often required because of the diversity of possible opportunities and deals. C-Tech Innovation has, through experience, acquired a broad ranging and highly experienced knowledge of key present-day and future industrial and scientific sectors. We are involved in cutting edge research in strategically important areas and so we are able to objectively view and assess many differing technologies. For additional details on how C-Tech can help you as either an investor or a provider of technology click here. Resource Efficiency KTN reaches North of the Border After a networking event at the CIWM conference in June, Resource Efficiency KTN Network Director, Arnold Black struck up a conversation with the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency Manager for Waste Minimisation in Northern Scotland, Alan Dundas.  The conversation turned to how remote locations and Island communities tend be good at ‘resource efficiency’ practises.  It turned out that Alan was from Orkney, which has some unique characteristics like few trees because of the winds, so it was using the winds to generate electric for heating rather than burning wood. After a few email correspondences about how electronic delivery might be useful to his local communities it was agreed that a ‘fact finding trip’ might be useful. Consequently thanks to support from SEPA in the area of logistics and fares, Arnold visited Orkney Mainland and Westray in November meeting with a few local companies and presented at their local Business WINS workshop.  Outputs are already a couple of connections with Anaerobic Digestion specialists, the Orkney ZERO Waste initiative and some novel waste water treatment technology options.  Plans for the next visit include the renewable energy sector (Orkney has lots of Wind and Tidal resource), local food waste issues and distributed energy.   The moral of the story is just because they are a long way away from the centres of population doesn’t mean they don’t have the same problem and can be very inventive in how they approach them.  And just because you are far away from the seats of power doesn’t mean RE KTN won’t be prepared to come and meet you. For more information to organise your free ’technology visit’ email resource@ctechinnovation.com Nanotechnology & Collaborative Projects at C-Tech C-Tech Innovation is continuing to play a growing role in the development (via collaborative research and development) of scientific and technical advances in science and engineering. Collaborative partnerships can help cut the cost burden associated with bringing research to market when compared to funding research alone. In addition, C-Tech has already established collaborative links with local, national and international companies, in order to solve scientific and engineering challenges, and looks forward to tackling new challenges with both established and new partners. Highly successful in many DTI &  ongoing Framework projects, C-Tech is actively involved in a total of 16 projects and has recently entered into the contract negotiation stage in several FP7 proposals which will increase the number of partnerships already in place. Nanotechnology has the potential to change our economy and to improve our standard of living, in a manner not unlike the impact by advances over the past two decades by information technology. While commercial products are starting to come to market, some of the major applications for nanotechnology are five to ten years out. Consequently, government support for basic research and development in its early stages is required in order to realize nanotechnology's full potential and to maintain a competitive position in the worldwide nanotechnology marketplace. Two examples of nanotechnology based collaborative projects that C-Tech is active in are Saphir & Nanoglowa. SAPHIR is a 4-year European integrated project on nanotechnologies and its safe handling. The general objective of the SAPHIR project is the safe, integrated and controlled production of multifunctional nanostructured products. With 23 partners from the industrial and academic world, 11 different European countries as well as Canada, Saphir aims to address a mechanism to cost-effectively and safely design and assemble a nano factory! For further details on this project click here. The NANOGLOWA project brings together a consortium of 26 organisations from 14 countries throughout Europe, comprising industry, universities, power plant operators and SMEs. in order to develop optimal nanostructured membranes and installations for CO2 capture from powerplants. NANOGLOWA is funded by the European Commission (EC) under the 6th Framework Programme and will run for five years. The emission of CO2 is the major contributor to man-made global climate. Storage of this greenhouse gas underground in empty gas fields and aquifers offers a potential solution. It is technically possible to store CO2 in this manner, feasibility studies and demonstration projects at various locations around the world are currently being carried out to prove the viability of sequesting CO2 underground. To store CO2 underground it first needs to be captured. CO2 capture and separation is not a simple process. The currently technology most commonly used is absorption; the flue gasses flow through several baths in which the CO2 is bound with amines. This ‘scrubbing’ technology consumes a lot of energy and therefore is not very cost effective and huge installations are necessary. The application of nanostructured membranes for CO2 capture and separation has the potential to bring down the energy penalty and installation demands substantially. The NANOGLOWA project wants to turn this potential into reality. For more information on the NANOGLOWA project, visit http://www.nanoglowa.com/ If you would like to know more about collaborating with C-Tech, contact us here. Resource Efficiency KTN Event Resource Efficiency KTN and WARMNET are pleased to invite contributions of papers and posters for their joint Annual Conference. The overall theme for the event is decoupling economic growth from environmental impact; addressing the unsustainable use of resources and breaking the link betwen economic growth, the waste of resources and adverse environmental impact. For additional details click here.

In the Northwest? Get into Knowledge 2 Innovate Innovation is increasingly complex, requiring the co-ordination of a number of inputs. Because of this, our K2i team will works with you to assess innovation needs across your business and help you to address these needs. The Northwest based K2i programme offers three elements, all of which are free to participating companies. K2i is not prescriptive - you choose which element(s) best suit to your current innovation needs. For further information on the K2i programme click here. New Starters C-Tech is pleased to announce two new members to our team. Dr Karen Brace has joined as a Project Manager & has an electrochemical background. Karen has previously worked on a high throughput optical screen for electrochemically active materials and has also led industrial, FP6 and DTI funded research programmes on fuel cell catalysts and hydrogen storage materials using high throughput PVD, surface science and electrochemistry. Pete Lomas joined C-Tech only last month as a Design Engineer. Pete graduated from Imperial Collage with a mechanical engineering degree and his main experience is in precision machining, injection moulding, casting, fabrication and rapid prototyping.