Industry speaks out against Carbon Trust
September 3rd 2007 Missed opportunities, narrow mindedness and confused thinking are among the accusations levelled at the Carbon Trust this week.
Speaking exclusively to Water, Energy and Environment, Barry Singh md of Fuel+ magnetic fuel treatment system, Maxsys, has revealed an astonishing series of events that have left Maxsys out of pocket and several of its customers unable to proceed with energy saving projects. It also raises serious questions about the competency of the organisation entrusted with enabling industry cut carbon emissions.
Maxsys’ fuel treatment system is designed to save at least 5% on fuel. Verified by an ABB audit following every installation, Maxsys offers a money-back guarantee if savings are lower than 5%. To date, a refund had never been required.
A technology with a proven track record should qualify for interest free loans. Yet the trust appears in two minds.
Maxsys was contacted by a company that had read about its technology. Unknown to Maxsys, the prospect applied to the Carbon Trust for an interest free loan late last year. The company subsequently requested supplementary information to support the application, which was then approved by the Carbon Trust, and the money received.
At the NEMEX show in Birmingham, Maxsys was approached by a Carbon Trust representative who said they “wanted to work with companies like Maxsys”. Three weeks later, on 24th May 2007, two Carbon Trust representatives, including the Marketing Manager of the scheme, met with Maxsys' sales force and management team to explain the Interest Free Loans Scheme.
The Carbon Trust proceeded to issue all Maxsys staff with loan packs and the firm invested heavily in targeting companies which met the profile set out by the Carbon Trust. Most Maxsys customers are multinationals. It was therefore an act of good faith by the Maxsys management to redirect resources from other planned market segments to focus on SMEs. Maxsys’ efforts resulted in them submitting proposals to a number of SMEs who, explains Singh, “were unlikely to consider talking to us without the ‘carrot’ of the Loans promise”.
With this in mind, a company, which had received support from the Carbon Trust in the past, was assured verbally by the Trust that its loan was approved for a Maxsys Fuel+ system. But then it received this letter:
“Following the receipt of your completed loan application form, I regret to inform you that we are unable to conclude your application. As part of every application we are required to carry out a technical assessment of the proposed project to validate the projected carbon savings and energy payback. Unfortunately, we were unable to find a suitably qualified independent technical expert to validate the energy-saving claims associated with the technology you are proposing to use. As a result we cannot progress your application any further at this stage.
We did spend considerable time trying to find an independent technical expert prepared to underwrite the technology proposed. We apologise for the resulting delay in processing your application.”
Were the above statement true, Maxsys would have no complaint. However, given Trust has already approved the technology and issued a loan, the implication is that the loan was either approved without any technical expert verification, or that it lacks access to an expert who can conduct such an appraisal.
There are many technical experts, such as ABB and other consultants approved the the Carbon Trust to conduct verification. Singh has been in touch with one consultant prepared to test the technology and he is also aware of such a trial being conducted by the Carbon Trust in collaboration with a Scottish food manufacturer.
The company that received the letter from the Carbon Trust is frustrated with the situation as it cannot proceed with the project without the interest free loan because the Carbon Trust, in its own words, doesn't have the technical expertise. "Surely they should have considered that before causing Maxsys financial loss and - more importantly – encouraging SMEs to adopt the technology," says Singh. "Particularly as the Carbon Trust has made loan funds available to another company."
“The reasons for declining the loan are a reflection on the Carbon Trust’s inability to address key technical issues which are central to their job function”, continues Singh. "They position themselves as a source of technical expertise but this illustrates that they are incapable of delivering. This is just one case, but begs the question: How many other missed opportunities the Carbon Trust has failed to deliver to UK manufacturing industry that would significantly impact upon energy efficiency and CO2 emissions?
“Why can’t the Carbon Trust speak to our customers [the likes of Ford, Dow, the NHS, Michelin]? Why don’t they speak to ABB – which has no commercial incentive to prove that the technology works?”
Given the evidence, either the Carbon Trust doesn’t have access to the level of technical expertise required to perform its function, or it operates on contradictory principles that neither inspire confidence in itself, nor carbon reduction projects in general.
Response from the Carbon Trust
The Carbon Trust was contacted and here follows an edited version; for the full response log onto www.energy-online.net and go to CTresponse on the left panel.
“We are very concerned by the unfounded allegations and inaccuracies presented by Maxsys regarding the capability of the Carbon Trust.
In 2006 a procedural error occurred which mistakenly granted a Carbon Trust Energy-Efficiency Loan to a company that intended to purchase Maxsys technology as part of an energy-saving project. This resulted in one application being approved without having undergone the proper technical validation process. As soon as this came to light the procedure was immediately tightened to remove the possibility of this happening again.
In order to be eligible for the Energy-Efficiency Loans scheme, we are required to carry out an independent technical assessment of every proposed project to validate the projected carbon savings and energy payback. To date, the energy-saving claims associated with Maxsys’ FUEL+ magnetic device have not been validated by a suitably qualified technical expert to the extent that we require.
Within the UK, the Carbon Trust has access to an unparalleled breadth of technical experts on energy-saving technologies including those associated with boiler efficiency. In addition we have a pool of over 350 accredited energy consultants with an aggregate experience base of many thousands of years of practical knowledge. It is significant that not one out of the entire pool of accredited consultants was prepared to come forward to professionally underwrite the energy-saving claims of Maxsys’ magnetic fuel treatment devices.
The Carbon Trust was approached informally by Maxsys to consider its FUEL+ product for the Energy Technology List (ETL). However, for any technology to appear on the list, and therefore potentially qualify for an ECA claim, it must first pass a scrutiny of its energy-saving capability. After extensive communication with Maxsys and our own independent investigation, we have concluded that there is currently no robust evidence to convince us of the claims Maxsys makes for its Fuel+ magnetic device. Furthermore, Maxsys has declined to produce the test house performance data we requested.
Further correspondence
Water Energy & Environment then questioned the Carbon Trust over its reply:
The Carbon Trust says that it has a pool of over 350 accredited consultants, were they all asked whether they would trial the magnetic fuel treatment device?
The question we asked our consultant pool was for any accredited consultants with the requisite experience to validate the energy-saving claims of magnetic fuel conditioning devices to identify themselves. None came forward.
• What about ABB, are they not suitably qualified to validate the technology?
There are no ABB consultants in our accredited pool and we have no evidence to substantiate whether they are suitably qualified. ABB’s role in the installation of the Maxsys product does not require expert knowledge of boiler efficiency. While we do not doubt that ABB is highly competent at the service they provide, this expertise is unfortunately not relevant to the issue in question.
• I have been told that there is a trial occurring with the knowledge of the Carbon Trust and an accredited consultant with a Scottish food manufacturer. Would this not act a validation?
The Carbon Trust withdrew from involvement with the Scottish food manufacturer some time ago. Neither the Carbon Trust nor any of our consultant pool is, to our knowledge, involved with this site.
• Will you be looking at this technology again in the future?
We have communicated with Maxsys on many occasions regarding their technology and what the Carbon Trust would require in order to make progress towards consideration for the Energy Technology List or for inclusion in an Energy-Efficiency Loan project. If they can provide answers to one or both of the questions we posed back in February 2007 [(i) a peer-reviewed academic paper explaining the causal relationship between inserting a magnet into a fuel line and downstream boiler efficiency gains; (ii) statistically significant performance data from a UK accredited boiler test house on a with/without the magnet device basis] then of course we would be happy to look into this technology again. | 
