Stoke Park Finance Limited was formed in July 1992 under the name of Aquamin Company (UK) Limited following the introduction to a Russian professor and two engineers who developed the water purification system used on the Russian Salyut series of manned space shuttles. On the demise of the old USSR they were free to Market the technology in the west. This was the original Reverse Osmosis process, a membrane technology filtration system. Better not go into too much detail but I am sure you know that space was at a premium and therefore all water used was reprocessed on board! We brought the three Russians to Bristol where a demonstration was given to ten of the top UK water companies. There was substantial interest in the product but the cheapest unit at that point was a trailer mounted system which required to retail at £250,000. This figure was beyond our funding capabilities and the water companies would not commit to any assistance. In reality they wanted the system on site in the UK for a minimum of 6 to 12 months before committing. The Russians were concerned that the UK businesses would seek to use this period to strip down the mechanics of the system and copy it. This was an unfounded concern as the secret was in the membrane, not the machine itself.
