Impact case study database

Economic benefits are four-fold:

(i) The formation of a company, Bramble Energy Ltd (BE) [A], which employs fourteen FTEs (Kucernak – founder and CSO, Dr Tom Mason – CEO, Dr. Erik Engebretsen – Head of Engineering, Dr. Vidal Bharath Head of Operations, Prof. Dan Brett - Director of Innovation) and manages the development of the underlying technology. This has led to wealth creation and employment within the UK. BE has received Series A investment of £5M [A], an event noted in the Daily Telegraph [B]. In 2020 BE first had initial sales XXXXXX. BE additionally supports down-stream job creation in a number of suppliers including ZOT Engineering, GGM Engineering, Air Engineering Group, and PDR.

(ii) BE supports a number of other “downstream” companies as its model is to outsource manufacture to a number of sub-companies, such as ZOT printed circuit boards [C]. ZOT employs 220 people at their site in Inveresk Mills Industrial Park, Musselburgh. BE also uses components manufactured from important UK industrial producers such as Johnson Matthey Fuel Cells, who manufacture catalysts and electrodes for fuel cells. BE partners with users in a wide range of areas. Examples include BOC (Linde) who are using BE fuel cells in their products [D], and companies such as Taylor Construction Plant Ltd (TCP) who are using the BOC systems (containing BE fuel cells) to power a wide range of devices such as industrial lighting towers [D, E].

(iii) From an investor perspective, BE is one of a range of companies allowing the rapid growth of the Clean Technology sector in the UK [B]. The Office of National Statistics has estimated that turnover in the UK low carbon and renewable energy economy (LCREE) has increased to £46.7 billion in 2018, compared to £40.4 billion in 2015 [F]. In the recent business section of the Sunday Times [27 December 2020, “HOPE BLOOMS FOR 2021”], Entrepreneurs were asked to list the start-ups they see thriving in the new Britain of 2021. In the article Stephen Welton wrote that “ *To achieve the UK's target of net zero greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050 will require revolutionary changes in energy use, and that can't be done without innovative start-ups. BE makes hydrogen fuel cells, which generate power from an electrochemical reaction rather than combustion. The technology can use existing manufacturing facilities, cutting the time and investment needed to bring the products to market.*” [B].

(iv) Contribution to the emerging “Green Industrial Revolution” energy sector. BE is a start-up working in the area supported by the UK government push towards the use of hydrogen in the governments “ The Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution” in which point 2 is “Driving the growth of low carbon hydrogen”, an area which could deliver support for up to 8,000 jobs by 2030, potentially unlocking up to 100,000 jobs by 2050 in a high hydrogen net zero scenario with over £4 billion of private investment in the period up to 2030 leading to savings of 41 MtCO2e between 2023 and 2032, or 9% of 2018 UK emissions. This area is associated with £350 million worth of funding to help decarbonise industry, including dedicated funding for green hydrogen.

George Mills Technology, Investor at the major investment fund BGF wrote “ Bramble has created a world-first in the production of hydrogen fuel cells, with the potential to transform a global and growing market. Critically, Bramble has inherent scale-up potential with fuel cells that can be made in PCB factories around the world. BGF is backing a pioneering team with significant commercial acumen. As the UK advances towards its greener future, the cleantech industry is one of increasing interest to BGF, with our capital and financial firepower designed to help accelerate growth and provide long-term partnerships.” [E]

Neil Cameron, Investment Director at the major investment fund Parkwalk wrote “ The fuel cell market appears to have finally reached a tipping point within which Bramble’s highly scalable technology can enable widescale adoption.” [E, G]

Societal benefits. BE is involved in bringing the concepts of lower carbon footprint and energy usage to the general society. DEFRAs recent CLEAN AIR STRATEGY 2019 states that the long-term exposure to man-made air pollution in the UK has an annual impact on shortening lifespans, equivalent to 28,000 to 36,000 deaths with the majority of those deaths associated with transport emissions. This has resulted in the Department of transport to mandate the shift to electric vehicles (including Hydrogen Fuel Cell vehicles) by 2030 ( Government takes historic step towards net-zero with end of sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030). BE has already demonstrated the use of its fuel cells in transport [D, G, H] and is working with a number of automotive providers XXXX XXXXXXX to implement their fuel cells in passenger vehicles.

Public policy or services benefits. BE and specifically Kucernak have been involved in a number of Governmental and industrial workshops and contributed to the major Royal Society policy briefing document “ Options for producing low-carbon hydrogen at scale” associated with scoping out the future pathways towards rapidly accelerating decarbonisation of society.

Positive health impacts and environmental benefits. The systems that BE are working on will contribute to a cleaner environment with reduced emissions of harmful gaseous pollutants which are estimated to cause an extra 4.2 million yearly deaths worldwide (source: WHO) or an extra to 28,000 to 36,000 deaths per year in the UK (source: European Heart Journal) . Reduction in emissions associated with particulates and NOx from diesel emissions will contribute to a less polluted urban environment through the use of BE hydrogen fuel cells in electric vehicles (see below). Furthermore, BE is working with a portable industrial electricity generator company xxxxxxx on portable fuel cell generators to reduce air pollution on industrial sites [D]: a 5kW diesel generator produces as much carbon monoxide as 450 cars (Source US consumer product safety commission)! By working with BOC, TCO and others xxxxxx, BE is developing replacements for these generators with clean, quiet fuel cell systems which only produce water as their exhaust [D, E]. (2) The longer-term goal is to put BE fuel cells in vehicles, as these will be able to drastically decrease the emissions and improve the energy efficiency of transport. To that goal, BE is already negotiating with vehicle manufacturers about the use of fuel cells in their vehicles and have demonstrated a project in which BE fuel cells operate efficiently in transportation [D, G, H]. The company is in discussion with various other manufacturers and centres: Advanced propulsion centre, and major automobile manufacturers xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. As fuel cells demonstrate a much higher energy efficiency than internal combustion engines, the shift to hydrogen powered fuel cells will allow a reduction in UK emissions of carbon dioxide, and also provide a path towards a sustainable economy in which the storage of renewable energy is facilitated through water electrolysis to hydrogen and when required the energy stored within the hydrogen is converted back to electricity in a fuel cell.