Our drive for a sustainable future is breeding new ideas that are proving successful in the market

Harnessing the power of the sea

OPENHYDRO

Tidal energy may be largely untapped and in its infancy, but this didn't stop investors stumping up €40 million in OpenHydro's recent funding round.

OpenHydro is an Irish energy technology company which designs and manufactures marine turbines for generating renewable energy from tidal currents. This brings total funding raised by OpenHydro since 2005 to more than €50 million.

"Raising €40 million demonstrates the confidence that our investors have in the company and its technology. The funding will enable OpenHydro to consolidate and grow its position as a global market leader in tidal turbine technology," says chairman Brendan Gilmore.

The funding will be used to support the commercial development of the company's open-centre turbines which are being developed and assembled at its new facility in Greenore, Co Louth.

OpenHydro is the only company to have installed a tidal turbine at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) test facility, off the island of Eday, Orkney which it is using as a test bed for its turbines.

The electricity produced by tidal energy is completely renewable, since it relies on tides that are created by the gravitational effect of the sun and moon.

Whereas other forms of renewable energy are dependent on the weather conditions that day, such as the amount of wind or a clear sky, tidal energy is understood to be relatively predictable, giving the electricity produced a premium value.

The company's vision is to deploy farms of tidal turbines under the world's oceans - silently and invisibly generating electricity at no cost to the environment. It has recently won contracts to supply its turbine technology to projects in Nova Scotia, Canada and the Channel Islands.

In January 2007, OpenHydro was selected by Canadian utility Nova Scotia Power to provide it with turbine technology for a tidal energy demonstration project in the Bay of Fundy. Following successful completion of this installation, Nova Scotia Power plans to develop large-scale tidal farms in the region.

In March 2007, Alderney Renewable Energy chose OpenHydro to install an array of turbines on the sea bed around Alderney, in the Channel Islands, which has some of the strongest tidal flows in the world.

Cementing the future

ECOCEM

Cement manufacture has never really enjoyed an environmentally-friendly image. That's probably because it is the second largest industrial source of CO2 emissions in the world - over two billion tonnes of CO2 each year. So, making "green cement" may seem a contradiction in terms, but that's exactly what Dublin-based firm Ecocem is doing.

Ecocem's environmentally-friendly cement is manufactured from a recycled product, blastfurnace slag, a by-product of steel-making. Its manufacture saves energy, CO2 and other emissions when compared to the manufacture of ordinary cement.

It is now widely used as an environmentally-friendly cost-neutral alternative to ordinary cement on many major construction projects throughout Ireland.

Ecocem opened a €10 million low-carbon cement manufacturing facility in Dublin in 2004.

Since then, they have avoided the dumping of over 700,000 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere by supplying the Irish construction industry with green cement.

This is the equivalent of taking 170,000 car fleet - or 10 per cent of Ireland's cars - off the road for a year.

Currently, Ecocem can save the emission of 300,000 tonnes of CO2 in Ireland every year, when its manufacturing operations are working on full capacity.

The company has also started to prove itself commercially.

Last June, it launched carbon-neutral concrete, a zero CO2 version of the world's most widely used building material, together with major Irish construction industry partners Treasury, Pierse, McNamara, JJ Rhatigan and the Durkan Group.

The initiative will see carbon-neutral concrete used in flagship projects including the Convention Centre Dublin and the new Department of the Environment headquarters in Wexford.

Carbon-neutral concrete is achieved when the carbon footprint of the concrete is reduced as much as possible by using low-carbon cement, with the remaining footprint being neutralised using carbon offsets.

"Ireland has become the first country in the world to use carbon-neutral concrete. This is a watershed in the history of Irish construction and a huge contribution to the fight against global warming," says Ecocem founder Donal O'Riain.

"It is an example that will be emulated across Europe and further afield," he says.

Bioethanol production

EIRZYME

Bioethanol is one of the most consumer-friendly, low-cost fuels for vehicles, but producing bioethanol has been very costly because of the inefficient, expensive bioprocesses required to make it.

A Galway-based start-up is aiming to make large-scale bioethanol production a reality by manufacturing enzymes that are vital in the conversion of biomass to give high yields of bioethanol.

Eirzyme has developed a proprietary enzyme technology, offering the potential to make the production of ethanol from renewable biomass feedstocks commercially viable. The company, which has been founded on technology developed at NUI Galway and a €10 million investment from Canadian company Micromill System Inc, is set to be a major player in the biofuels sector. Eirzyme has set up initial R&D laboratories at the Enterprise Ireland-funded bioincubator facility at NUI Galway.

The new company will produce low-cost enzymes to convert biological materials such as brewers' grains into bioethanol and biogas.

These renewable fuels produce environmental benefits by reducing overall emissions of greenhouse gases, and are sustainable alternatives to petrol and diesel. The ultimate goal for Eirzyme is to set up a large-scale enzyme production facility which will manufacture specific enzyme cocktails to work on a range of raw materials.

"There has been considerable industrial interest in the patented technology developed by Dr Maria Tuohy and her research team at NUI Galway," says Dr Daniel O'Mahony, director of technology transfer at NUI Galway.

"The formation of Eirzyme is the first step towards unlocking the inherent commercial potential of their breakthroughs.

"Eirzyme will have global reach and we are confident that the company will make a valuable contribution to addressing future energy needs," says O'Mahony.