Institution news
It was while reading a book about engines that Steve Lindsey had his eureka moment. His solution was a radical rethink of the piston model: an oil-free, rotary motion that draws in air as it compresses, delivering energy savings of some 20%.
The Blade Compressor, which received funding from the Institution’s Stephenson Fund, was one of 15 inventions selected by the European Patent Office (EPO) from a global field of European-registered patents, and among just three in the SME category. Lindsey was up against innovations in fields ranging from biotechnology to polymers and pharmaceuticals.
Lindsey, a chemistry graduate, readily admits he was no expert in compressor design in the early 2000s. His expertise grew as the idea took hold to improve a widely used, but often overlooked, technology.
He applied for a patent for the Blade Compressor in 2003, set up his Warwickshire-based company, Lontra, in 2004, and brought his invention to market in 2016. It is currently delivering cost and energy savings in the water industry.
Lindsey said: “The thing that excites me is the potential of the Blade Compressor to save globally significant amounts of energy. Throughout the journey to date there have been lots of people who have said that ‘it must have been done before’. They said that most of the core mechanical engineering designs have long been invented and that the opportunities in the future are around materials and manufacturing methods.
“We’ve shown that this isn’t true. I believe that there is a wide range of industries based on seemingly mature mechanical engineering technologies that could be changed by a new geometry or invention.”
“There have been a whole series of milestones, but the one that really stands out was when independent testing by Severn Trent Water showed that our Blade Compressor used 21% less electricity to run than equivalent machines. We had done our own testing, but to have it independently verified and published was really exciting. Of course, development never stops and our next generation of machines will be more efficient again.”
He said: “To be selected as a finalist from a field open to anyone in the world [who has filed a patent in Europe] is a great honour and a great endorsement.
“As we move into large scale production we hope to make a significant impact on UK and worldwide energy usage through the increased efficiency of our compressor, which can be used in a broad range of industries.”
Compressed air, sometimes known as the ‘fourth utility’, is essential to industry worldwide. However, there has been little change in the core design of air compressor machines for over 80 years. The vane compressor, still in use today, dates from 1588; the roots or lobe blower from the 1870s; the last big change in the industry was the screw compressor invented by Swedish engineer Lysholm in 1935.
Not just noisy, these compressors are often inefficient and expensive to maintain. Lindsey says his machine is a completely new take on addressing the problem and has been shown to be quieter, more reliable and far more efficient.
Lindsey won the UK’s Manufacturing Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2015 and the compressor was the top energy product at the Environment and Energy Awards the same year. Lontra was a finalist at the TMMX and the Energy Institute Awards in 2016.
The European Inventor of the Year awards ceremony was held in Venice on 15 June. The winners were selected by an independent jury from the fields of business, politics, science, academia and research.