Award for Torbay tech duo revolutionising Net Zero goals

A ground-breaking system developed by a pair of Torbay tech businesses is set to lower the NHS's carbon footprint.

The system is designed and manufactured in Torbay and could have international reach.

And Torquay-based Hymid and Paignton development partner SageTech Medical have won a national award for manufacturers serving the medical industry.

Staff from both Hymid and SageTech Medical were at last week's Med-Tech Innovations Awards ceremony at the NEC in Birmingham.

They were presented with the Sustainability Award for their innovative anesthetic gas capture system.

The system by SageTech, partly designed and manufactured by Hymid, is set to revolutionise the way these gases are captured, lowering the carbon footprint of organisations like the NHS and saving them money.

The product has the potential to go worldwide and have a meaningful impact on the nation's drive towards Net Zero.

Dr Steve Wileman, head of research at SageTech Medical, said: “SageTech Medical are delighted to have been awarded the Sustainability Award at the Med-Tech Innovation Awards in collaboration with our manufacturing partner, Hymid.

“The award is further validation of our position as pioneers in the development of a truly sustainable volatile anaesthetic gas capture technology. Congratulations to the teams at Hymid and SageTech!”

Tom McMurtrie, managing director of Hymid, a technical injection moulding specialist based Woodland Road, Torquay, said: “We're proud to be a valued partner to SageTech Medical and winning the sustainability award is due recognition of the importance of their game-changing technology; the future looks promising!”

Hymid is a specialist plastic injection moulding company with decades of experience providing top-quality plastics solutions to the medical, instrumentation, consumer, and electronics industries.

SageTech Medical, based in Long Road, Paignton, was founded eight years ago by a small team of scientists and engineers with the goal to reduce the impact of environmentally harmful waste volatile anaesthetic agents.

The manufacture of virgin anaesthetic agents and their release as potent greenhouse gases are damaging to the environment and contribute to the carbon footprint of healthcare.

By offering a safe, sustainable, and easy-to-use solution for the capture and recycling of these waste volatile agents, SageTech Medical are providing hospitals and clinics with a straightforward solution to make a real difference to the planet.

The circular economy solution safely captures waste volatile anaesthetic agents onto two reusable capture canisters (‘SID-Cans’) which are housed inside a capture machine (‘SID-Dock’) that integrates simply, seamlessly and universally into existing anaesthetic equipment. The captured agents are then recovered and recycled in Torbay, ready for future reuse.