Southside Thermal seeks £1.2M to develop heat efficient engines

Investment opportunity

Southside Thermal Sciences (STS) Ltd, a spin-out from Imperial College London, is seeking £1.2 million in funding to produce its temperature-sensitive coating system for engine and generator turbine blades for the world market.

The company is seeking one or more investors within the next three months for its current funding round, to invest alongside Imperial Innovations and an undisclosed institutional investor. 

Imperial Innovations “has confirmed a potential investment” of about £100.000, according to a briefing on the company at the 8 March “Meet the Spinouts” conference organized by Library House and sponsored by Science|Business.  

The company is developing an integrated system for turbine engines consisting of thermal barrier coatings (TBC) and the instruments required to make use of them.  The TBC technology, which is patent-protected in the USA and Europe, has been developed for use on high temperature turbine blades, as used in gas-turbine power generators and aircraft engines.  When illuminated by UV light the coatings provide accurate temperature readings leading to savings in operating costs and greater efficiency. 

The company aims to start marketing the product on completion of a two year test programme.  STS aims to install its technology in 25 per cent of the world’s natural gas power plants by 2014 by offering free installation and a percentage return on client savings.

Initial funding for the company came from Imperial seed funding, an award from the British Department of Trade and Industry, and grants from The Carbon Trust and European Union.