A Cullman company was named one of the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama’s 2017 Innovation Awards winners on Wednesday night in a ceremony held at Birmingham’s Alabama Theatre.

ZeroRPM received the Corporate Innovator of the Year (small company, 1-50 employees) Award in recognition for its battery-powered ZeroRPM Idle Mitigation System that allows a vehicle to idle without running the engine.

CEO Lance Self accepted the award on the company’s behalf.

“We are proud to be made in Alabama,” Self said from the stage.

Zero RPM, which created the IMS 100 idle mitigation system that can power a vehicle and the air-conditioning for several hours via high-capacity batteries, began five years ago in the Wallace State Community College business incubator.

The initial target market for Zero RPM was law enforcement, with the intent of cutting down on gas and carbon emissions while idling, but the potential has expanded into other areas, such as bucket trucks that must run for long periods of time during work.

The company now has a research and development center on Alabama 69, while production of its products is done at HH Technologies in Bremen.

The other 2017 EDPA Innovation Award winners were:

– Quality Filters, Outstanding Achievement in Innovative Manufacturing (Robertsdale) in recognition for its advanced manufacturing methods and lean business processes in cutting the lead time for filter deliveries from three to four weeks to averaging five days or less.

– Diatherix, Corporate Innovator of the Year (large company, 50+ employees) (Huntsville) in recognition for its groundbreaking pathogen detection technology, which enables healthcare providers to more accurately determine the cause of an infection and determine multiple infection sources.

A panel of judges from across the state, under the chairmanship of ADTRAN CEO Tom Stanton, chose the award winners from a pool of 88 nominations submitted by the public from across the state.

“With even more high-quality nominations this year, representing incredible innovations across the state, the judges had a difficult time choosing this year’s winners,” Stanton told the audience.

The awards, which were started in 2014, annually puts a spotlight on thought leadership, innovation and creativity in Alabama. The EDPA 2017 Innovation Awards is part of “imerge,” an event which represents the next generation of the Alabama Innovation and Entrepreneurship Conference held for the past six years.