Thermacore Europe is leading an €8.3m pan-European project called NanoHex, to develop a cutting edge liquid coolant that incorporates purpose engineered nano-particles for more efficient cooling.
Involving 12 European companies and research centres, NanoHex is the world's largest collaborative nanotechnology project. Its aim is to produce a nanofluid coolant up to 40% more efficient than traditional coolants in order to combat the ever increasing heat loads of high-tech industries.
"Studies show that the dispersal of carefully engineered nanoparticles into a fluid significantly aids heat transfer," said Mamoun Muhammed, Chair Professor at the Royal Institute of Technology Sweden and the Scientific Director NanoHex. 'And it is this unique property of nanoparticles that NanoHex is looking to harness.'
Cooling is an issue facing many industries such as microelectronics, transportation, manufacturing and power generation. The project seeks to couple significant technical benefit and commercial viability with environmental friendliness, to produce a nanofluid that can be safely manufactured, applied and recycled for use in a diverse range of applications from computers to engines.
"Traditional cooling systems using air or water are not always efficient. They can be expensive to run, produce large carbon footprints and limit productivity." continued Muhammed. "Nanofluids could help to provide a more economic and efficient cooling system in which the heat may be captured and recycled."
The three year NanoHex project which began September 1st 2009 received £5.5m from the European Commission's Framework 7 Programme. Together the 12 strong consortium aims to upscale the manufacturing process to produce large volumes of operational nanofluids in order to take this groundbreaking product to market.
Data centres (particularly hardware installed) and large electric drives are two industries with particularly high cooling demands and it is these that NanoHex will use to investigate the application of nanofluid heat transfer.
"Data centres account for 2% of the global CO2 emissions and the technological advancement of the large electric drives used high speed trains now requires a more sophisticated heat transfer system to extend their life time and increase performance," said David Mullen, Thermacore's Senior Research and Development Engineer and Project Director for NanoHex.
"Nanofluids could well be the solution and NanoHex is working in some very exciting areas that could not only revolutionise cooling systems for data centres and electric drives, but the technology of the 21st Century."
NanoHex is being led by Thermacore Europe Ltd based in Northumberland UK, in close conjunction with:
NanoHex was awarded funding by the Framework Programme Seven (FP7), a grant scheme operated by the European Commission, with help from the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) team for North East England, an initiative managed by CPI in partnership with One North East, who help regional companies to form new partnerships and secure finance for research and development.
Founded in 1970, Thermacore specialises in bespoke thermal management solutions, offering custom design, development and manufacturing of highly engineered systems and components for a variety of OEM applications. Their work is featured across a diversified set of global markets including Military, Medical, Telecoms and Communication, Aerospace, Power, Industrial, Sealed Box, Consumer, and Automotive.
Nearly 40 years of experience in the design, development and manufacturing of passive two-phase systems provides Thermacore with unparalleled engineering design expertise, thermal solution performance, quality and reliability standards. Thermacore Europe Ltd was founded in 1998 with the acquisition of Isoterix and has been in their present location since 1999. Thermacore employs more than 175 employees at their two facilities headquartered in the United Sates (Lancaster, Pennsylvania) and the United Kingdom (Ashington, Northumberland) www.thermacore-europe.com
KTH accounts for one-third of Sweden's technical research and engineering education capacity at university level. Education and research cover a broad spectrum - from natural sciences to all the branches of engineering as well as architecture, industrial engineering and management, urban planning, work science and environmental engineering. In addition to the research carried out by KTH's Schools, a large number of both national and local Competence Centres are located at KTH. KTH has extensive international research and educational exchange programmes with universities and colleges, mainly in Europe, the USA and Australia, but also increasingly in Asia. The university participates actively in various EU research programmes and also cooperates with Swedish and international development agencies.
Lindsay Gill
NanoHex Communications Leader
CPI Communications Executive
T: 01740 625 783
E: Lindsay.gill@uk-cpi.com
