Waste heat to power specialists Heatcatcher have received a staged grant from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) Energy Entrepreneurs Fund, it was revealed in the August issue of South East Business magazine.

An initial grant of £50,000 will support the first stage of designing an “optimal heat transport system for industrial waste heat to power”, which involves developing a sophisticated system to capture waste heat at a UK cement plant. Once the detailed design is approved by a client at a trial site, the remainder of the grant will be accessed to fund the installation project and montitor the results.

Heatcatcher’s grant application faced competition from many other energy efficiency technologies, but the concept of harnessing waste heat to generate power for industrial processes is high on the DECC agenda, following the recent publication of its consultation paper on the subject.

South East Business magazine was speaking to Heatcatcher’s CEO Darren Bryant as part of its monthly ‘Innovators’ feature, which has covered several Sussex Innovation Centre businesses in recent months. The article describes Heatcatcher’s results as “impressive reading, not just for those who focus on the bottom line but for those who look at the business’ green credentials”.

The feature also discusses the Centre’s new Catalyst scheme, which sees work placement students from the University of Sussex supporting members on specific growth projects, while benefitting from centralised training with the Centre’s support team.

Heatcatcher design, build and operate waste heat systems primarily for power stations.