Oxsensis, which is based at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, has scooped an award at this year’s national Carbon Trust Innovation Awards.
Oxsensis, which has developed the world’s highest temperature sensors, won the award for innovative new technologies which will cut carbon emissions in industry. Its sensors can be used in gas turbines, for example in planes or power stations, and are capable of measuring heat and pressure in the harshest conditions where temperatures can reach nearly 1500°C – hundreds of degrees hotter than traditional sensors can stand. With more accurate readings comes the possibility of running turbines at higher combustion temperatures, thereby increasing efficiency and reducing carbon emissions.
David Gahan, CEO Oxsensis said: "Oxsensis is delighted at winning the 2009 Carbon Trust Innovation Award. The citation given at the Awards event mentioned the strong progress the WavePhire 1000°C pressure sensor has made over the last two years with the world's biggest manufacturers of gas turbines and the first trial of our instrumentation in a public grid power station at RWE NPower's Didcot facility."
Commenting on this year’s Awards, Tom Delay, Chief Executive, the Carbon Trust said: “As the UK looks to develop and deploy new low carbon solutions to tackle climate change, the breadth and depth of innovation here is deeply encouraging. Whilst many of the organisations that we looked displayed innovative approaches to cutting carbon emissions, the winning entries stood out for their industry leadership and potential to be replicated more widely. This shows the fantastic opportunity for organisations to thrive as Britain moves to a low carbon economy.”
The awards were judged by a panel of experts including David MacKay, Chief Scientific Advisor of the Department of Energy and Climate Change; Tim Smit, co-founder and Chief Executive of the Eden Project; Damian Carrington, Head of Environment at the Guardian; Chris Mottershead, Vice Principal of Research and Innovations at Kings College London; Dick Strawbridge, ‘eco king’; Jeremy Webb, Editor of The New Scientist; and Tom Delay, Chief Executive of the Carbon Trust.
This year’s nationwide hunt attracted submissions from around 250 of the UK’s most inspiring innovators in the development, deployment and use of low carbon technology solutions, across a range of areas from power generation to buildings to transport. The judges rigorously assessed each application against a range of strict criteria including genuine innovation, carbon saving potential, novel application and commercial potential.