Sault native wins award for inventing new engine cleaner, wants to manufacture it locally

Scott Irwin, a Sault native, inventor and owner of Holland, Michigan-based Liberty Automotive Technologies (LAT), is pumped about receiving an award from a U.S. automotive industry publication for inventing a new fuel system cleaner.

Liberty Automotive Technologies has received an innovation award from Professional Tool & Equipment News (PTEN) for 2017.

“When you get an award, it helps, it feels good that you’ve accomplished something,” Irwin told SooToday.

Irwin has set up a company, B&E Automotive Technologies, to manufacture and distribute the fuel system cleaner and the chemicals needed to operate it in Canada and export the products, specifically through a job-creating facility here in Sault Ste. Marie.

“This is the first machine I’ve invented and had patented.  It’s been selling well.  We launched it last June, and in the first six to nine months we’ve been bringing it to the market, we’re through that refining period, and now starting to increase production.”

“Next steps are to try and find a manufacturing partner in the Sault and start focusing on distribution in Canada, and to use Canada as the export base to other countries,” Irwin said.

Irwin, who lives in the Chicago area, spent three years developing, testing and refining his IC-2 GDI fuel service system, known as the Purus fuel system cleaner.

The devices are currently being manufactured in the U.S. and are being marketed to auto repair shops to service their customers vehicles.

Simply put, the machines inject cleaning fluids into vehicle motors to extend the life of vehicles.

“It removes deposits (dirt) in the engines.  Over time, the valves build up deposits so you get rough running, inefficient engine operation, and if you don’t take care of it there comes a point where you have too much stuff baked on it, where you have to take the top of the engine off and mechanically clean the valves.”

“What we’ve done is develop a way to maintain the cleanliness of the valves without having to go through a bunch of costly repairs every few years, and it reduces the need to fill up your tank as often,” Irwin said.

Irwin said a startup in the Sault will require three people at first, but that number will grow if all goes according to plan.

“The machine is a delivery mechanism for the chemical cleaners, so what we’re looking at is to have an actual packaging plant for the chemicals in the Sault, then we would ramp up to probably about 20 people to run the operation.  There’s the machine assembly and the chemical side of it.”

Irwin said he has been working with the EDC, and has been looking to hook up with existing manufacturers in the Sault to share a facility with. 

“With the award comes a lot more attention and demand.”

With that attention comes the need for money to expand his operation in Canada and is looking for a financial backer.

Irwin is a Sault native, a Sir James Dunn graduate who went on to study business at the University of Western Ontario.

He returned to the Sault to work at Algoma Steel for a period before  relocating to the Chicago area.

For Irwin, the Sault will always be home.

“I keep telling people everywhere I go that Sault Ste. Marie is the best kept secret in the world, for its sheer beauty.  I’ll always spend time in the Sault at Christmas and in the summer.”

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