Awaiting Public Project Summary

This project builds on the success of (BS088J) IDP7 and seeks to bring into production the world’s first high-performance; low-cost, electrically-driven supercharger (eSC) specifically designed for the rapidly growing segment of small engine (ca. 1.0L) vehicles. By 2016, it is estimated that 49% of gasoline engines will have a displacement of <1.2L and 50% of diesel engines will have a displacement of <1.3L. This segment growth is supported by increasingly stringent regulatory emissions controls and changing consumer preference for more economic, environmentally conscious transportation. However, these increasingly discerning consumers also seek these downsizing enhancements without compromise to their overall driver experience – requiring automotive OEMs to deliver larger torque from smaller engines, particularly at low engine speeds. Whilst engine boosting systems have become established ways to deliver an enhanced driving experience, the technology remains problematic in several key areas important to Automotive OEMs, particularly for small engines (e.g. engine response; impact on other car systems). eSC is based on Dynamic Boosting System’s patented TurboClaw® technology. It has unique design attributes that mitigate many of these performance issues, whilst also delivering superior engine performance in accordance with downsizing objectives. During IDP7, eSC provided a proof-of-concept, which resulted in a 20% reduction in CO2 emissions and a 31% increase in torque on a 1.0L displacement engine, compared to its single turbocharged counterpart. These characteristics have created significant interest amongst a number of automotive OEMs. Building on this success, this project aims to bring eSC to market in 2018 with conservative estimated sales of 20,000 units, generating over £500K of manufacturing licensing revenues. By 2020, we conservatively estimate annual revenues to be £3.8m with an annualised production of over 1m units.

The project addresses a key area within HEV systems by developing a low-cost Flywheel Energy Storage System (FESS) for mass production that can achieve a significant reduction in transport related CO2. The consortium is led by a high volume vehicle OEM and includes a global materials supplier, SME's and an academic institute specialising in flywheel technology. The consortium will develop a novel system with low run down losses delivered into a compact package space suitable for incorporation into the vehicle architecture. The project will consist of detailed design, prototyping and test stages and will be carried out by consortium partners who will require the support and development of UK suppliers allowing for the transfer of key skills. OEM's will support both SME and academia to develop their capability to support the automotive industry in a potential high volume environment.

Mechanical Vapour Recompression (MVR) enables industrial processes which produce steam and have a re-use for heat to be more environmentally and cost efficient. Up to 85% of energy stored in steam is in the form of latent heat, so energy is wasted as low temperature steam from the stack when ejected. MVR “mechanically recompresses” steam to increase its temperature, generating useful heat that contains more energy than the electricity required to compress it. The energy is used to heat e.g. the fryer or evaporator resulting in 1) lower fuel consumption, 2) operational savings and 3) a “greener” production process. With a requirement to reduce greenhouse gases, technologies that unlock step-changes in energy efficiency are key. Processing industries account for 25% of emissions, yet 5% of associated energy is lost as waste heat. This energy is recoverable, but requires technology to make it useful again at a cost which is a profitable investment – hence a win-win for industry, government and environment. MVR is one such enabling technology, but limitations in compressor designs currently bound the range of applications for which it is economic at the expense of CO2. MVR is a widespread concept in dairy, water desalination and concentration industries operating with higher flow rates (up to 30-100 tonnes of steam / hour). But a large opportunity exists in the many of other applications that require higher pressure increases and / or operate at lower flow rates (

Dynamic Boosting Systems Limited (DBS) is a high-tech engineering company with the ambition to make a range of industrial processes more environmentally sustainable and cost efficient. It specialises in low specific-speed forward sweptturbo-machinery, ‘TurboClaw’, now exploiting markets for applications such as electric supercharger engine downsizing,handling of new environmentally friendly refrigerant gases, air management for fuel cell systems and energy recovery fromejected steam. TurboClaw is an innovative turbo-machinery design protected by a number of patents. DBS is working withselected blue-chip partners to take the benefits of TurboClaw, lower cost and better performance, to scale market applications.The purpose of this project is to strengthen the protection and exploitation of our Intellectual Property, seeking externalexpertise to do so.

The Refrigerant Vapour Compressor employed in refrigeration equipment is to change drastically due to concerns over ozone layer depletion and global warming potential of refrigerants. The international legislation, after the Vienna Convention and Montreal Protocol, banned CFCs by 2010 followed by a blanket ban of HCFCs by 2030. The new refrigerants with zero ODP and low GWP require higher operating pressures that due to low flow rates are challenging for refrigerant vapour compressors. The higher pressure requirement is also better suited to oil free operation. Conventionally, the sub 200 kW units are oil lubricated, positive displacement machines (scroll and screw) that are becoming redundant due to the high pressure requirements. Oil-free turbocompressors, regularly employed for >200 kW industrial units are not suitable for sub-200 kW units due to low flow rates. Dynamic Boosting Systems Ltd (DBS) has developed and patented an innovative low specific speed turbocompressor with high efficiency, TurboClaw®, suited to low flow rates and multistage applications (due to its short axial length). The design is already well-proven for compressing air applications (electrically driven superchargers). TurboClaw® has a simple design, amenable to low cost manufacture which translates to commercial viability. For mid-range, light industrial refrigerant applications of 16USRT (US Refrigerant Tons), equivalent to 56 kW of heat removal – the target for the present proof of concept proposal – a two stage TurboClaw® at 50,000 rpm delivers the same performance as a three stage centrifugal compressor at 125,000 rpm. The proposed project aims to prove the suitability of TurboClaw® for this application. A 12 month project has been planned. The technology can also be used in a multitude of other plants requiring refrigerant vapour compressors (e.g. petrochemical) as well as energy recovery from waste heat (organic Rankin cycle).

As part of the potato crisp making process, potato slices (75% water) are fried in hot oil. The low grade waste heat generated is scrubbed and discharged, resulting in a continuous vapour plume. In a modern production facility, this leads to a loss of approximately 8 MW of energy which is equivalent to heating requirements of 5000 average households. The present project addresses the capture and energy recovery from this low grade waste heat. It is proposed to compress this vapour to a higher pressure and temperature to provide useful thermal heat for heating the fryer oil. This will reduce energy use by 43% (1.8 MW gas and 750 kW electric) and CO2 by 5 kT PA (45% reduction). This is a challenging design requiring the development of specialised equipment as conventional technology is not commercially viable (payback period 15 years). The process requires multiple compressor stages with decreasing volumetric flow rates of 2-0.35 m3/s. The proof of concept project proposed here will deliver a key enabling compressor stage for vapour recompression that will reduce the number of stages required and hence reduce cost by 10 fold (£5m to £0.5m). The design will be a UK-based, patented, highly innovative low flow rate compressor. The development of this compressor, TurboClaw®, reduces the payback period to six years. Significantly this technological solution contributes to curtailing emission pollutants and hence addresses the important issues of global warming and depletion of natural resources. Mechanical vapour recompression reduces the consumption of primary energy and, consequently, the environmental load. TurboClaw® will make this technology commercially viable. Main industries to benefit from the development of TurboClaw® technology are Food and Beverages, Chemical, oil and gas. Immediate sales of 145 units worldwide for the potato crisp fryer application have been envisaged, generating a revenue of £72.5 m by 2017.

The project will deliver an improved (optimised for life and efficiency), integrated balance of plant system for a sub-5kW off-grid PEM fuel cell power supply system. At the core of the improved Balance of Plant Fuel Cell Air Management System (FC-AMS) package will be the adaptation of a UK-based, innovative slow specific speed, highly forward swept turbo-compressor technology (as opposed to conventional backward swept designs). In addition, the lead partner (in collaboration with the consortium) will optimise the complete balance of plant gas/fuel management system (includes the air feed compressor, hydrogen recirculation pump, humidifier, with sensors integrated with the power conditioning feedback controls). The academic partner will perform basic research to improve performance characteristics of the low specific speed turbo-machine and transfer knowledge to the industry partners, thus enabling customer-specific, parametric design derivatives to be offered to new and different applications, developed within short development timescales and at low cost. A manufacturing partner is included to ensure we have an affordable supply chain for commercial exploitation of the FC-AMS package. Researched data and market assessment show sales in the wider fuel cell and auxillary power unit (APU) sectors of over 20,000 units by 2015 generating new jobs in the UK, over £25m revenue, with over 50% export sales. The lead partner (since EOI submission) has conducted further market research, and has established a strategic ambition to attain the position of fuel cell system integrator; this project is upheld as a lead programme towards that end.

Awaiting Public Summary