EEDA - East of England Development Agency

Six of the best – with EEDA’s help

13 April 2011

Six of the eight finalists in the East of England Energy Group’s (EEEGR) Energy Innovation Awards 2011 were boosted by a helping hand from EEDA.

Among them was the eventual winner, Scour Prevention Systems, for its simple but innovative solution of linked car tyres to form a mat on the seabed, preventing scouring around the bottom of monopiles, bridge supports and similar subsea installations.

The idea came from former commercial diver Bob Durrant who runs his company from the EEDA-supported OrbisEnergy Centre at Lowestoft. His success followed news that the scour prevention system is to be given commercial trials by international energy giant E.ON.

Five other finalists in the awards staged by EEEGR, the East of England Energy Group, in Norwich received EEDA backing either through help with premises, Proofs of Concept or other direct support. They were: 4NRG, Active Technologies, the Energy Skills Foundation Programme, eTRV and GEV Offshore.

“We may be reaching the twilight of EEDA’s role in the business community but we are proud to be involved in the dawn of so many vibrant and innovative companies which we believe will develop and bring the region growth and economic prosperity for many decades into the future,” said EEDA chair, Will Pope. 

“In spite of the recession and continuing restraints on developing business, there is a still a fund of inspirational and imaginative ideas out there and we are delighted to help wherever we can in bringing them to fruition.”

Bob Durrant spent 30 years as a diver and was often intrigued by the impact discarded car tyres had on the seabed.

So instead of retiring, he launched his company to patent the idea and investigate whether it could work on a much larger scale. The tyre ‘mats’ are designed to rest on the seabed and fill with sand, forming an inert protective ‘skin’ over the seabed which is too light to sink and which can eliminate scour.

 “We first talked about the idea eight years ago but didn’t start the company, at Lowestoft’s OrbisEnergy Centre, until two years ago,” said Bob. “We’ve been testing our SPS solution ever since. Winning the award is out of this world; it’s the pinnacle of everything.

“I’m 69 now and had put off retiring to get this off the ground – I can take it a little easier now that it has been recognised.”

His four-man company features his son and fellow diver Richard, engineering specialist David Watson and sales and marketing director Mark Aspinall.

Luton-based eTRV Chalmor won the low carbon award for its heating control energy-saving system using innovative electronic thermostatic radiator valves.

Other EEDA-backed finalists were:

• 4NRG, also from Orbis Energy, Lowestoft, for a coastal or estuary protection device which will also generate tidal energy
• Active Technologies, of Hethel Engineering Centre, for an integrated PIC controller to measure rotary and linear positional data
• The Energy Skills Foundation Programme, a pioneering course promoted by Skills for Energy to prepare students for apprenticeships in various aspects of the energy sector
• GEV Offshore, of Great Yarmouth, for introducing Oxifree, a new anti-corrosion encapsulating technology into the UK.
  

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