C-Tech has recently increased its innovation and business consultancy capability as Justin Wrench has joined from Mouchel.

Justin has worked on anything from financial and performance management systems, to mobilising large public sector partnerships. his specialist interests include project and programme management, business excellence, strategic management and organisational development.

The UK Chemical industry's annual energy use is around 68,000GWh. A significant proportion of this is used in processes used for the production of chemcials.

Microwave-enhanced chemistry has been used for a number of years by laboratory chemists, particularly in pharmaceutical discovery, to speed up chemical reactions. To date, the technology has been capable of producing only milligrams or, at most, a few grams of material.

At laboratory scale, the reduction in reaction time achieved by using microwaves compared with conventional heating processes has been dramatic. Moving to industrial scale production can result in significant energy savings (up to 90%). Higher yields can also be produced, thus reducing the amounts of reactants that need to be processed (upto 50%) giving a further energy saving.

The Carbon Trust has targeted this ground-breaking project & awarded C-Tech a grant of £278,000 to demonstrate the potential of energy efficiency for a range of chemical reactions. C-Tech Innovation's expertise in microwave engineering will build and test a microwave-heated, continuous flow, laboratory system that is capable of producing kilograms of material per day. A key requirement of the reactor design is its scalability so that it can form the basis of industrial units that are capable of producing 100s of kilos (or tonnes) per day.

For more information click here.

We are delighted to announce that Ceralink Inc, C-Tech's US based licensee of Microwave Assisted Technology, has signed an agreement with American kiln builder Harrop Industries Inc.

This exclusive agreement grants Harrop Industries the right to market and build industrial kilns using C-Tech's patented Microwave Assist Technology.

Microwave Assist Technology is a cutting edge heating technology that combines microwave with traditional gas or electric heating, bringing cost effective manufacturing solutions to ceramics and metals industries. Benefits of using this technology include significant energy and time savings, improved product quality and advancements in new product development.

In addition to our North American licensee, we have agreements in place within Europe & also Japan.

For more information on our Microwave Assist Technology click here.

C-Tech is pleased to announce it is partnering with Green Biologics Ltd in an innovative collaborative research and development project.

The £560,000 project, BUTAFUEL, which has received an investment of £250,000 from the Technology Strategy Board, will speed up the development of an advanced fermentation process for the production of bio-butanol, a renewable liquid biofuel for transporation.

C-Tech Innovation brings particular expertise in bipolar electrodialysis processes which will be used to optimise bio-butanol yield. Green Biologics Ltd has been rapidly advancing their proprietary fermentation process for producng bio-butanol using their expertise in microbial strain development.

Bio-butanol is a superior "next generation" biofuel that can easily be integrated into the existing fuel infrastructure and blended with both petrol and diesel fuels.

For more information click here.