In recent weeks a series of interesting events have taken place involving some key high-growth SMEs, including several among the favourites of Gibson Index researchers, in which respected directors have bought shares in those companies. This is our pick of the latest share dealings:

Realtime Worlds

Potential buyers from the US and the UK have expressed an interest in buying APB, the game created by Dundee-based Realtime Worlds – the company which shocked the Scottish games industry by falling into administration in mid-August.

The collapse of Realtime Worlds, one of the UK’s largest and most promising independent games developers and publishers, gave rise to calls to reinstate proposed tax breaks for the struggling industry.

The firm, which is headquartered in Colorado but has its main development operation in Dundee, owes trade creditors in the UK around £3 million. The company failed only a month after it launched its new online action game APB: All Points Bulletin as it was hit by poor sales and lacklustre reviews of its latest product.

Paul Dounis, joint administrator from Begbies Traynor, said the firm’s servers would continue to operate. He said: “The game will continue and that is something we want all customers to be aware of.”

According to its latest accounts, Realtime Worlds raised $21m (£13.5m) from investors as late as January this year. But the accounts, for the year to the end of 2008, showed the company had made an operating loss of £19.2m. US investment fund Maverick Capital put $50m (at the time, about £25m) into the company in 2008. Administrators confirmed that 53 of the company’s 210 staff were being retained, including 14 of the 42 jobs at its headquarters in Boulder.

The project involved modifying the engine of a Ford Transit-based vehicle to operate using compressed hydrogen gas fuel – but it can also operate from its existing petrol fuelled system without any adverse effects.

The specially built demonstration vehicle is designed to show that hydrogen as a fuel – and the associated equipment – are practical and efficient in a vehicle powered by an internal combustion engine. The concept is expected to accelerate the availability of CO2-free, hydrogen-fuelled commercial vehicles operating in Britain.

The conversion features Ford’s 2.3-litre 4-cylinder petrol engine, to which we have added a belt-driven supercharger with intercooler. This provides additional combustion air under pressure when the fuel mode switch is selected to hydrogen only. The engine retains its conventional spark ignition system.

The hydrogen fuel is currently designed to be stored in three tanks, underslung below the vehicle floor. This installation provides a usable storage capacity for 4.5 kilograms of hydrogen at 350bar (5000psi) and gives an estimated range between 95 miles for the urban cycle and 135 miles for open highway running. Additional capacity can be added if required. Importantly, the location and configuration of the tanks allows the retention of the volume and load height of the base vehicle – with no intrusion or interference within the load space. They have recently established a collaboration agreement with ITM Power plc to provide the breakthrough refuelling solution by enabling vehicle operators to generate their own hydrogen fuel.

Using a patented electrolyser, due to enter production at ITM’s special facility in Sheffield later this year, it is possible to make hydrogen fuel wherever there is a source of electricity and water. Revolve’s work on military projects and its Mountune developed race engine for the new FIA Formula 2 Series.

In the same week that Prime Minister David Cameron’s wife Samantha gave birth to a baby daughter - Britain’s first geothermal power plant, which will use hot rocks below the surface of the earth to generate heat and energy, was given the go-ahead – also in Cornwall.

Local planners approved the scheme at St Day Industrial Estate, which will involve a 51m high drilling rig boring 5,000m, where the rock temperature is about 170’C. Water will be pumped down, returning as hot water and steam to generate power. The £40m plant could produce enough energy to heat 20 schools and produce power for 20,000 homes.

Drilling is due to start in 2011, with power production starting in 2013. Ryan Law, managing director of Geothermal Engineering Ltd, said: “Cornwall has very hot granites and we believe it has significant potential. It could generate 1GW of electricity, about the same as one big coal-fired power station.” Each plant has a 25-year lifespan before the rocks cool. The company was awarded £1.5m in funding by the Department of Energy and Climate Change in 2009.