Kinewell Energy
It is well-documented that the North East is perfectly placed to tap into the growing offshore energy market, with many small businesses emerging to capitalise on that opportunity.
North Shields electrical engineering consultancy Kinewell Energy is gaining attention around the world, having already been singled out for the TIGGOR programme which aims to help develop innovative new technologies. Set up by Andrew Jenkins in 2015 when he was a PhD student at Newcastle University, the company’s KLOC tool was launched this year and is now starting to secure contracts which is, in turn, creating jobs.
Mr Jenkins said the KLOC solution typically saves offshore wind developers in the region of 20% of the cable cost over the project life, by playing ‘dot-to-dot’ to find the most cost-effective way of linking up the turbines with cable to collect the energy generated. And the firm’s latest tool uses cloud computing to make it accessible via an app, which means clients can access KLOC anywhere, anytime, using a desktop, laptop, tablet or even their mobile phone. Kinewell has nine employees but that number is set to grow, as he told us earlier this year: “Our growth trajectory shows our headcount doubling roughly every year – which looks set to continue for the foreseeable future.”
Read more: Newcastle deep ocean consultancy works with Avatar director James Cameron
Rheal
It’s just over a year since Sean Ali and Charlotte Bailey blazed into Dragons’ Den and secured offers from all five entrepreneurs, thanks to their superfood blends firm Rheal, (formerly known as SuperU), which is helping thousands of customes having helped their own health struggles.
They initially negotiated a joint deal with Tej Lalvani and Peter Jones but mutually walked away from the deal to launch a Seedrs crowdfunding campaign instead.
Now, after raising more than £1m from an initial target of £550,000, the pair couple are splitting their time between Los Angeles and home in South Shields, after launching Rheal in the US. Job creation and expansion in Gateshead has already been triggered thanks to UK sales, so it’s hoped the company will now go much further - and former dragon Tej Lalvani clearly thinks they will: he pledged a six-figure investment into the firm after leaving the BBC show.
Dyman Advanced Materials
This County Durham firm has developed a novel way of creating synthetic diamonds which require extreme pressures to form. Dyman was founded by Dr Gary Gibson who first got the idea he could create diamonds 25 years ago, as an undergraduate student. Having proven the technology in the laboratory, Dr Gibson and his team are now moving into manufacturing - armed with more than £880,000 investment via two rounds completed earlier this year.
Diamond creation normally requires temperatures of 1,600C and enormous pressure - the equivalent of balancing a car on the head of a pin. The process typically involves a machine three metres wide, three metres tall and three metres deep, weighing tonnes. Dyman has miniaturised that process into a system the size of a football.
That could help it cut a bit of the $14bn industrial diamond market that includes everything from components for offshore oil and gas drilling to ultra-sharp scalpels for surgeons. If successful, the firm says it could create more than 100 jobs.
Lhyfe
Momentum is building behind green hydrogen as an alternative fuel source. And French firm Lhyfe has identified the North East as fertile ground for its adoption. With some financial muscle behind it thanks to a €110m IPO on the Euronext Paris exchange, Lhyfe is looking to make inroads in the region where it eventually hopes to set up a production plant.
In the short term, UK boss Colin Brown is talking to potential customers including industrial users with heavy energy requirements and particularly transport operators who want to go green but can not afford to keep electric vehicles off the road while they charge. Green hydrogen is seen as a replacement for natural gas and can be used in existing gas networks, and is also a replacement for oil-derived fuels such as petrol and diesel, as well as aviation and marine fuel
Lhyfe has already set up a Newcastle office and is hoping to build up a critical mass of users in the North East, where bp has already revealed plans for a large scale green hydrogen plant on Teesside.
CellulaREvolution
Lab-grown or “clean” meat innovator CellulaREvolution is based at Newcastle’s Centre for Life and has spent the last two years driving forward technology solutions in cell therapy, biologics, and clean meat.
The firm’s continuous cell culture solution means clean meat can be produced more quickly, efficiently and in greater quantities. Two technologies have been created to make it possible - a synthetic peptide coating that eliminates the need for animal-derived serum, plus a bioreactor technology that means it can move from batch to continuous production. By moving to continuous cell production, the area needed to grow cells can be drastically reduced, increasing the yield while lowering production costs.
The company says a small steak could take a single bioreactor one month to produce using existing processes, whereas its biotechnology could shorten that to a few days. In February CellulaREvolution received £1.75m funding from a Hong Kong investor, designed to help it bring the meat to consumers’ plates.
READ NEXT
- Tyneside software firm Technology Services Group hails improved trading
Energy consultancy EnAppSys expands into German and Hungarian markets
- Quarter Day payments bring unwelcome concerns for North East business owners
- Read more North East business news
- Sunderland innovator Vero Power says the sky’s the limit for solar
