Coventry start-up Lontra succeeds with energy-saving air compressor

A Coventry-based technology start-up has developed an energy-saving design for air compressors, which are commonly used in manufacturing to do everything from powering factory machinery to putting cornflakes and crisps in packets.

Sometimes described as the fifth utility, compressors account for 10 per cent of industrial electricity use in Europe.

Lontra's Blade Compressor, which last month won the prize for best energy product at the Environment and Energy Awards, uses a rotating blade that operates like a corkscrew, compressing air in one continuous movement as it turns. Very little air is leaked, and it is quieter than conventional piston machines and uses less power.

The global market for air compressors is about £20bn a year and, although there are many patents pending for air compressor designs, Steve Lindsey, Lontra's founder and chief executive, believes his has the potential to be the biggest innovation in the technology since the 1930s.

Lontra has licensed its product to Sulzer, a Swiss engineering company, for use in waste water treatment. This followed a year's trial at a Worcester waste treatment facility owned by Severn Trent Water, which showed that the Blade Compressor generated energy savings of 20 per cent.

The company won early support from the Carbon Trust, a private body that helps companies reduce carbon emissions.

Ian Cooke, a member of the trust's board, says Lontra is "one of our flagship success stories". He says at Severn Trent Water, Lontra was able to demonstrate its capability, with its product replacing an existing compressor.

"It's a real live demonstration which is often a very difficult thing for an early stage tech company to do, particularly with the capital cost involved," Mr Cooke says.

The municipal and regulated water industry is one of the biggest markets for air compressors. It uses them to aerate sewage, encouraging the bacteria that then consume the waste matter.

Compressors are used in almost every industry, says Mr Lindsey, a chemist.

They are built into household products such as fridges and car air conditioning systems. Factories use them for everything from stamping machines for car parts to paint guns for consumer goods

A growing use for air compressors - particularly in the drugs, food and building materials sectors - is pneumatic conveying, where powders, granules and other dry bulk materials are moved in a stream of air.

"It's the thing that puts cornflakes into the Cornflakes packet. Air is used to convey the material but also to open the packet," Mr Lindsey says.

A report last year by Shell and the Carbon Trust cited Lontra as one of a number of small UK companies involved in low-carbon technologies, a sector the report suggested could generate £30bn in exports by 2020.

Lontra is backed by a £250,000 grant from Innovate UK, the government body that supports innovation.

It has just closed a £2.5m fundraising - and has raised £5m to date.

The company employs 12 people, some hired from Formula One companies such as Cosworth engineering in Northampton.

Mr Lindsey believes there is growing interest in the sector, and he points to recent deals in the US where Sullair and Gardner Denver, both involved in making traditional piston air compressors, were taken over by private equity companies.

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