Our business started back in the 1990’s, converting ground-based engines for light aviation. Our engine of choice was the ubiquitous BMW R100 boxer engine. During the development of this engine, I invented Pulse-Jet Ignition. By utilising a small percentage of the cylinder charge, ignition energy and combustion quality can be improved by a factor of four figures!

Our main aim when converting engines was to improve the efficiency, but as new regulations were put in place, there was a growing demand for engines with lower emissions.

Motorcycles and scooters don’t come under the same emission based tax classification for road excise as cars. Instead of being based on emissions they are based on their cubic capacity. Many motorcycles don’t meet the ULEZ criteria, however Transport for London (TFL) didn’t want to see delivery operatives swapping their congestion busting scooter for a ULEZ free van.

I received a phone call from Neil at The National Emissions Testing Centre out of the blue. Neil is the man TFL use for checking and adapting motorcycles and scooters for ULEZ compliance. He was enquiring about our product, Pulse-Jet Ignition as he had just tested a high mileage 1978 BMW R80 for ULEZ compliance… and it passed! Since then we have supplied Neil with systems for various bikes and scooters.

During this time, we employed eight engineers, trained a number of apprentices and held work experience courses for St Georges Academy. We sold off the main focus of the business in 2019 due to ill health. We decided to concentrate on Pulse-jet Ignition, previously only available in our engines.

We have reached a recognised world leading position and are now ready to expand again. We would like to move manufacturing back in house and expand our testing facility. We have full certified emissions testing which includes five gas analysis with water separation. We separate the water as some elements of the Nox emission are soluble in water and are therefore hidden from many emission tests. We can currently significantly improve the emissions of existing spark ignition petrol engines with PJI. We want to further develop a system that we have for existing compression ignition diesel engines and bring that to market.

Our long-term plan is to manufacture carbon neutral “Weasel” engines for off road and power generation. The world has accepted thermal efficiencies of between 20% and 30% for internal combustion engines. We are now pushing into the 60% zone and believe that we can get beyond 70%.

Denise and Steve Scriminger, Pulse-Jet Ignition
(opens in a new window)