Nviro raises £10 million for ‘clean coal’

Having pared losses to £1.36 million (2007: £1.52 million) for the half-year to March, green technologies specialist Nviro has raised £10 million of new cash to speed developments, including its ‘clean coal’ lead product, toward maiden revenues.

Isle of Man-registered Nviro aims to commercialise five projects, ranging from waste recycling to air-quality monitoring and emission control, at various stages of development. Its most advanced product, harboured in a subsidiary called Vertus Technologies, is for ‘reductive thermal process’ (RTP) technology that ‘cleans up’ coal by removing such unwanted items as sulphur, chlorine and mercury and produces a higher-value, lower-emission coal.

Nviro now intends to invest the monies raised from institutions into progressing its initial commercial agreements. The first is a services contract signed with Cincinnati Bulk Terminals in the US to treat a variety of fuels for its industrial customers over a 25-year period. The second is an agreement to form a joint venture with China’s Shenyang Coal Trade Group (SCTG), to build and operate Vertus RTP units to remove contaminants from SCTG’s coal. SCTG also has a 20-million-tonne ‘mountain’ of waste coal with too high a sulphur content to be useable, which Vertus technology could turn into clean and functional product.

With the initial stages of a project in India with China Light & Power and staff and research costs absorbing some more, £8 million of the funds have been ring-fenced for Vertus. At the half-year, £4 million of cash remained on the Nviro balance sheet

Chief executive Chris Every says the Cincinnati project should ‘be up and running at the end of this year’, producing maiden revenues. And with four further technologies yet to reach such stages, Nviro, capitalised at £21 million, could prove a rewarding speculation.

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