Sorry Tom, it let me see the page for some reason but not when I tested this link.
I am not a subscriber to the Times, honest i'm not!!!!!!!!!!
An Aberdeen-based company has developed microwave technology to produce "biocoal" - wood pellets made from forestry products - that offers a way to reduce emissions from coal-fired power stations.
Rotawave Biocoal has signed a $20m (£12.7m) deal with Cate Street Capital, a US investment company, to manufacture the technology exclusively and market it in North America and Canada.
Rotawave, which is also holding talks with UK power plant operators, claims biocoal is a sustainable and practical energy source which offers an inexpensive way of converting coal-fired stations to meet British environmental legislation.
Richard Cyr, from Cate Street Capital, said: "This game-changing technology could revolutionise the use of biocoal on a worldwide scale. It is smart technology that means biomass can take a step closer to becoming the fourth power source [after coal, oil and gas]. Essentially it creates a new energy commodity in mass quantities that is efficient, environmentally sensitive and renewable."
Bob Rooney, chairman of Environmental Energy Group, Rotawave's parent company, said: "This deal signals what we consider the first major milestone for our innovative technology which has been three years in the making, representing a £3m investment by our company."
Mr Rooney said Cate Street, through its subsidiary Thermogen Industries, had seen the potential of the technology for the North American and Canadian biocoal industries and believed their confidence in the product would help Rotawave market it throughout Europe and the rest of the world.
"As the UK moves towards reduced emissions targets, our torrefaction units offer a true alternative for coal-fired power stations," he said. "The end product pellets look and act like coal but are low in carbon, offering a low-cost conversion option. This technology could potentially save these power stations from closing."
Using its Aberdeen base for project management and its Isle of Wight plant for manufacturing, Rotawave will support Thermogen in the manufacture of the pellets in North America and promote its technology throughout the rest of the world. Rotawave expects to create up to 40 new project engineer jobs as a result of the deal, split equally between Aberdeen and the Isle of Wight.
Rotawave claims its technology, developed out of its work in the North Sea oil and gas industry, is the first in the world to use microwaves to create low carbon fuel from organic matter efficiently and continuously. The microwaves within the patented continuous drum system form part of an integrated process which generates more thermal energy than it consumes.
Thermogen plans to produce 100,000 tonnes of biocoal a year by 2012, eventually increasing that to 1m tonnes.