Technology firm seeks pluck of the Irish for funding

A SCOTTISH technology firm is looking to Ireland for funds as private investors there appear more interested in green technology and are less risk averse than in Scotland and England, the company's founder has claimed.

David Tonery, who has invented a carbon-efficient combustion engine for automobiles, aims to raise 4 million to produce a "commercially feasible" demonstrator of a new engine that could reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 15 to 30 per cent. He expects 3m will come from the European "Marguerite" fund, a 600m pot aimed at investing in green transport and energy, with 1m to 2m to come from private investors.

Tonery, who spun out his company Oxy-Gen Combustion from Dundee University, is also pursuing a development partnership with oil and gas giant Shell following participation in a green technology showcase in Rio last month hosted by Michelin.

He said: "It seems Ireland has a little more money or a little more interest in green technology than the UK has. Ireland is looking to innovation to get us out of the hole while the UK is slashing deficits and budgets. They are very risk averse.

Tonery said his engine, which refines "homogeneous charge compression ignition" (HCCI) technology, will benefit from a quadrupling of the size of the automotive industry in the next 20 to 30 years as car usage in China, India and Brazil increases. Market research firm Global Insight believes HCCI will power nearly 40 per cent of heavy-duty vehicles by 2020.

HCCI rivals other "green" automotive engine technology including electric cars and hybrids. Tonery estimates that even if electric cars go immediately into widespread production, combustion engines will still make up a large part of the market.

"Even if 50 per cent of all vehicles from this day forward are electric, the production volumes of internal combustion engines would never change because the growth is so big overall," he said.

Oxy-Gen has two patents for its engine technology which could lead to more as the engine moves into production.

In the past two years, Oxy-Gen has won funding from Scottish Enterprise via two SMART awards. The firm also won the Shell Springboard Award for Scotland in 2008.

n A "matchmaking service" to link up green energy projects and potential investors is to be launched ahead of a conference on low carbon technologies to be held in Edinburgh.

Investors keen to put money into environmental projects can enter their details into the website run by the Scottish Low Carbon Investment Project and a computer programme, designed along the same lines as a dating agency, will match them with suitable projects.

The investors will have the chance to find out more about their potential "dates" through events staged ahead of the conference at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre in September.

Investors can register at http://www.slciconference.com.