Specialist facilities and infrastructure

This covers a variety of tasks such as the manufacturing of heat pipe heat exchangers, heat pumps, solar PV and PLC controls and their assembly. The laboratory is equipped with state-of-the-art tools, fabrication, brazing and welding equipment. Research projects that have been fabricated within this laboratory are as follows: Innovative Polymer-Based Composite Systems for High-Efficient Energy Scavenging And Storage (InComEss), Heat Pipe Technology for Thermal Energy Recovery in Industrial Applications (ETEKINA), and Heat Pipe Design Challenge for Hot Plasma Cooling (UKAEA).

Heat pipe based water desalination and filtration work is carried out in this specially equipped laboratory, and this is in addition to chemical testing and analysis. Research projects that are being conducted within this facility are funded by: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Innovate UK and the industry.

A unique and state-of-the-art fabrication and testing facilities available for innovative Heat Pipe Based cryogenic cooling applications as part of Air Product’s Heat Pipe Hybrids Cryo-Heat Exchanger and the Hybrids Heat Pipe Cryofreezer project, also in collaboration with Air Products and Chemicals. Air product invest in the region of 60k/year in cash and materials in this lab. One of the systems that is now being finalised is the blood plasma freezer that will be used by the NHS Blood supply unit in the UK in addition to other systems for food and process industries.

A chamber room available for controlled environment testing and an innovate UK and industrial projects. The Active Refrigeration Shelf with Thermal Storage project has used the facilities within the chamber room for accurate testing with its advanced controls set-up. The patent for this new technology has been granted I many countries including China. Brunel owns 5% of the IP.

The fabrications and testing laboratories are used for various EU Horizon 2020 projects such as Climate and cultural based design, and market valuable technology solutions for Plus Energy Houses (CULTRAL-E); Prefabrication, Recyclability and Modularity for cost reductions in Smart BIPV systems; Innovate UK projects such as High-Power and High-Energy Battery Systems with Integrated Structural Thermal Management for Heavy-Duty Applications and Conceptual Feasibility of a Heat Pipe as a Structural and Thermal Member in an Automotive Battery Pack Design.