Aeristech raises £500K for turbocharger technology

Funding

Aeristech Ltd, a developer of a turbocharger technology that enhances fuel efficiency whilst reducing emissions, has raised £500,000 with support from the Oxford Investment Opportunity Network (OION), a technology investment network.

The round was led by Midven, which invested alongside Minerva Business Angels Network and members of the OION Network. Aeristech will use the new funding to progress testing programmes with two global vehicle manufacturers.

Turbochargers are fitted to make engines more powerful by using the energy from exhaust gases, that would otherwise be lost, to raise the pressure of air entering the engine. This increases engine efficiency and reduces fuel consumption.

However, conventional turbochargers only assist the engine when sufficient exhaust gas energy is available. Any mismatch between what the engine needs and what the turbocharger produces is a ‘turbo lag’.

Aeristech’s Hybrid Turbocharger Technology system (HTT) eliminates turbo lag, allowing vehicles fitted with HTT to combust fuel far more effectively at low revs than vehicles fitted with conventional turbochargers. As a result, the HTT system enables vehicle manufacturers to build smaller engines with the same level of performance as larger engines and which can generate 20 to 30 per cent in fuel savings.

The HTT system also reduces exhaust emissions by 20 to 30 per cent.

Bryn Richards, chief executive of Aeristech, said, “The motor industry is now seeking to bring the highest efficiency, lowest cost turbo systems into its supply chain and it is forecast that by 2014 around 75 per cent of all European light vehicles will be boosted by turbo technology.”

The UK public cleantech fund The Carbon Trust supported the initial development of the HTT system through its incubation scheme. Aeristech was also grants totalling £500,000 to produce a prototype. The company is now undertaking bespoke HTT testing programmes with a global vehicle manufacturer and a construction equipment vehicle manufacturer for off-highway vehicles.

Richards said, “We are focusing on developing and marketing HTT to the auto and off-highway sector. Our longer-term plan is that this will lead to a licence of our technology or sale of the company to a manufacturer in the auto supply chain.”