Clean Power Technologies in New Road is developing a system of harnessing the heat produced by engines and turning it into steam power.

Company president Abdul Mitha, who is a lawyer turned entrepreneur, said the scheme, a unique heat recovery and hybrid power system, would cut vehicle emissions and reduce fuel costs.

'We started this company in April 2006 and we moved into our present location in Newhaven in August 2006,' he said.

'We looked at a number of alternative fuel technologies from ethanol and biofuels to gas and electricity. What we found was that in their own special way all of these technologies have some form of merit but the net benefit in terms of fuel efficiency is far less than what is proclaimed of these technologies.

'They use a lot of fuel and create a lot of emissions in the manufacturing process.

'Steam is power and so is gasoline. If we can marry those two together in a smarter way, then why not?'

The company aims to use the waste heat that is currently pumped out of the exhaust and convert it into useful power.

At the moment it is building an experimental lorry where the exhaust is run through a steam accumulator. This allows water to be heated, creating high pressure steam to be used as power.

The ultimate aim is to use that power to run the main engine but for now its engineers are using it to run the refrigeration units on lorries.

This part of the project should be completed by the end of October. The company has collaborated with Safeway supermarkets in America which hopes to use the system on its lorries.

Once the lorries are up and running, Mr Mitha and his team will turn their efforts to creating steam hybrid cars. He hopes they will be on the streets of Newhaven within four years.

Mr Mitha said the cars may be slightly more expensive to buy than a standard car but the pay-off financially would come within a year.

He added: 'I was looking for something and this made more sense than anything else I have seen. We have eight or nine engineers in the team. You have some of the finest engineers in this area.'

For more information see www.cleanpowertechnologies.com