Key Technologies for Enhancing Energy Efficiency of the Dew Point Air Cooler and its Manufacturing

e61a333a-4aa4-4c03-af23-c08243026807

Closed

EPSRC
EPSRC
EPSRC
EPSRC
EPSRC

£1,906,175

April 30, 2015

July 31, 2017

The project aims to develop a novel energy efficient dew point air cooler and associated manufacturing process, through
the close collaboration among the leading UK/China Universities with the most advanced air cooling technologies and the
top China/UK companies having strong manufacturing capacities in instruments and fans. It involves four technical tasks:
(1) development of the cooler design and optimization tool and determination of cooler performance data (Month 1-6, led by
Hull, with Tsinghua and ebm-papst); (2) construction and testing of a 4 kW rated cooler, and identification of associated
manufacturing machines/tools (Month 7-14, led by Hull, with ebm-papst and Sinogreen); (3) development of a
manufacturing process with a computerised energy management system, and production of a 20 kW rated cooler (Month 7-
18, led by Sinogreen, with Tsinghua, ebm-papst and Hull); and (4) installation, real-time measurement, public
demonstration and marketing preparation of the cooler (Month 19-24, led by Sinogreen, with Tsinghua and Hull).
It is expected that (1) a combination of the energy management system and modular/numerical manufacturing
machines/tools will reduce energy use of the manufacturing process by around 20%; (2) the new cooler will achieve around
25% higher cooling efficiency and 40% higher COP, compared with existing dew point air coolers. This exciting leapforward
in technological development could create a new type of air cooler that has comparable price/size to traditional
vapour compression air conditioners but significantly higher COP over the traditional ones (7 to 8 times higher). This
distinguished technological advance should open up an enormous new global business in the air conditioning sector, thus
creating considerable impact on the economy, industry and the environment within the UK, China and beyond.

Potential Impact:
Potential impacts of the project are: (1) The project partners, together with associated material/components suppliers and
unit installers, will directly benefit from the cooler and fan/control businesses through the products sale/installation, as well
as knowledge/technology transfers on global scale; (2) UK industry as a whole will benefit by enhanced competitiveness, increased sales, and improved employment opportunities; (3) The ultimate end users will benefit by reduced energy costs
and improved internal environments; (4) Governments of the UK, China and other countries which install this kind of
products will benefit by potentially achieving significant reductions in fossil fuel use, thereby contributing to progress
towards its national carbon reduction targets.
To enable achieving the above predicted impacts, the project team members have planned a number complementary
activities and routes. First of all, they will work closely to ensure successful completion of the project, thus delivering four
high standard deliverables: (1) a pre-production prototype dew point air cooler; (2) a clean and energy efficient
manufacturing process; (3) an experimental prototype cooler and associated test rig; and (4) a computerised cooler design
and optimization tool. These will formulate the foundation for conveying the predicted impacts into reality. In parallel, the
project members will implement appropriate exploitation and dissemination activities detailed below.
Sinogreen, which is the leading industrial organisations of the project, will organise the exploitation and commercial
promotion activities, along with ebm-papst UK and two academic partners (Hull/Tsinghua). They will (1) determine the
data/knowledge management methods (by Month 1); (2) undertake the IP applications and sign up the license agreement
(between Month 1 and 20); (3) develop and sign-up a joint business agreement (by month 20); (4) develop the business
models for the cooler and fan (by Month 24); (5) develop the technology promotion plans for the cooler and fan (by Month
24); and in particular (6) introduce the coolers into a few identified building projects, e.g., Shanxi (China) High-Tech
Development Zone (government funded) project which would install around 100 dew point air coolers (50kW rated each),
Hull's Maritime Building IT Centre which, designed by NPS Humber Ltd, will install 5 dew point air coolers (60kW rated
each), and the Hull (UK's City of Culture 2017)'s History Centre which, designed by NPS Humber Ltd, will install a 100kW
rated dew point air cooler. Provided that project outcomes are successful, the above commercial orders should be in place
by the end of the project.
Hull will lead a dissemination group (comprising Hull, Tsinghua, Sinogreen, and ebm-papst) to manage various planned
dissemination activities: (I) developing a project website (by Month 1); (II) organising two workshops (including distribution
of the project leaflets): one in Hull (by Month 12) to showcase the operation of the experimental prototype cooler (4kW
rated), test rig, and computerised design and optimization tool, and the second in Sinogreen (by Month 24) to demonstrate
the operation of the cooler's manufacturing and pre-production prototype cooler (20kW rated) installed in Sinogreen's
instrument workshop; (IV) exhibitting the experimental prototype cooler (4kW rated) at two great events: one in the UK
(Eco-build, March 2016), and the second in China (Refregeration Exhibit, August 2016); (V) publishing eight journal papers,
and presenting the project findings in at least two conferences; and (VI) making/uploading three videos ((1) experimental
prototype cooler and its operational principle, (2) pre-production prototype cooler and associated manufacturing process,
and (3) demonstration of the pre-production prototype cooler) in a social network , e.g., YouTube.