Nathan Wrench of Cambridge Consultants with the machine
He hopes eventually to license the technology to domestic machine makers, allowing it to enter a market expected to be worth $50 billion next year.
“We’ve got an eye on the consumer but it will take time and we hope commercial success could act as a springboard to move into the consumer market,” Mr Westwater said.
Xeros, which is demonstrating a working machine in the United States, has signed a deal with GreenEarth Cleaning, an environmentally friendly dry-cleaning business, to sell the technology across North America.
“We’ve been very encouraged by the response from people, but the proof is in the pudding and that means putting a machine into someone’s operations and justifying the savings,” Mr Westwater said.
The technology was developed over the past 30 years by Stephen Burkinshaw, of the University of Leeds, and funded in its later stages by IP Group, an intellectual property commercialisation group.
Mr Westwater said the relationship with IP Group meant that Xeros was relatively protected from the recession in terms of raising funds and was trying to attract more cash to develop the product’s bead removal process.