Jul 2 2008
Microbial Solutions Ltd, an Oxfordshire company developing innovative technologies to assess and cleanse toxic metal working fluids used in the engineering industry, has won a Ford Motor Company TMM Engineering Excellence Award.
The Ford TMM Engineering Excellence Award is given to individuals or teams who have made a significant contribution to engineering or organizational excellence within engine and transmission manufacturing.
The Award was presented to Microbial Solutions to recognize the contribution made by the company in devising tests to assess the control of mycobacteria, a microbial bacteria that can contaminate metalworking fluids and has been linked to hypersensitivity pneumonitis, a serious respiratory illness affecting workers in the machining industry.
Microbial Solutions participated in the controlling mycobacteria project alongside senior employees from Ford’s production, manufacturing and environmental engineering departments.
Professor Will Pope, Chief Executive Officer of Microbial Solutions, said: “We are honoured to receive this prestigious Award from Ford Motor Company and delighted that the contribution which Microbial Solutions’ innovative technology can make to the engineering industry is being recognized in this way.”
Microbial Solutions is a spin-out company from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, a research centre owned by the Natural Environment Research Council. The company also has an innovative bacterial treatment, known as ‘Microcycle™ Technology’, which turns used metal working fluids into grey water that is safe to dispose of in the sewerage system within seven to ten days and with no methane production – radically reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The hope is that it could replace existing costly and energy intensive disposal processes, which rely on transporting metal working fluids to specialist treatment facilities to produce an oily waste that is transported to landfill for disposal, where its anaerobic degradation produces methane.
Microbial Solutions is currently conducting a commercial pilot of its ‘Microcycle™ Technology’, at the site of a major aerospace manufacturer. The company is also working in partnership with Houghton Europe, the leading provider of industrial fluids, with the objective of providing a complete supply and treatment process to major manufacturing companies using industrial fluids.
Industrial firms face pressure from regulators to reduce the pollution and toxicity of waste fluids as well as the amount of waste sent to landfill and climate change gas emissions. The Microcycle™ Technology could help them meet their targets while generating significant cost savings as disposal costs rise - in Europe alone they are estimated at around 1 billion euros per annum.
Microbial Solutions uses a bioreactor (a large cylinder) containing non-pathogenic bacteria that together ‘eat’ the polluting and toxic elements of metal working fluids. The on-site bacterial process is provided on a ‘pay as you treat’ per litre basis, offering price certainty and stability to manufacturers.