HIS Royal Highness the Duke of Kent this week checked on progress at an innovative North-East engineer that plans to treble staff numbers in the next four years.

Nano-porous solutions (n-psl), an IMI Precision Engineering company based in Gateshead, formed in 2008 as a new start up.

The Duke of Kent took an early interest in the business, with The Royal Society Enterprise Fund providing early investment to aid their growth plans.

Over recent years n-psl has become a leader in technological advancement and has plans to grow staff numbers from 35 to 100 by 2018 and reach a turnover of £20m.

The company provides a range of innovative technology filtration and purification systems. Its highly skilled team of design and development engineers work closely with customers to create a range of bespoke air treatment products. Such is the innovation of the technology that a number of international patents have been awarded. Most notably this has been for the (AMT), energy efficient Adsorption Media Tube. Applications of AMT include drying compressed air in the rail industry to operate breaking systems and door opening, and nitrogen generation for applications in food packaging and laser cutting.

The Duke was welcomed by managing director Colin Billiet, prior to being given a tour of n-psl’s site.

Mr Billiet said: “It has been a real honour to demonstrate the progress we have made as a company since our first meeting with the Duke back in 2009 at the ‘Rags to Riches’ business event, hosted by The Royal Society. In particular, we are very proud the Duke was able to witness the successful commercialisation of AMT technology and to see how it’s making a real difference across a range of industry sectors, aiding productivity and business growth.

"We are very proud of the progress we have made as a business which is very much down to the talents and dedication of our team here at nano-porous solutions.”