ASERCOM Energy Efficiency Award 2003

The "ASERCOM Energy Efficiency Award" was presented on the occasion of the opening of the IKK exhibition in Hanover, Germany.

The award winner is a team of companies: Thermetica, UK - Dehon Service, France – and Mergl Engineering, Germany – who have developed and designed a "Thermal Storage Technology" for the well known energy saving application, whereby the ice slurry generated not at heat exchanger surfaces but in the fluid of the storage tank itself. For this purpose a special, non water miscible cold liquid flows also through the storage tank as transport fluid for the latent heat of ice generation to be cooled back by the refrigeration system.

The presentation was made on behalf of ASERCOM by the president Jochen A. Winkler, the laudation was held by Junior Minister Joachim Werren, Ministry of Economy and Employment of the State of Lower Saxonia. The sponsorship of this award, by the Association of European Refrigeration Compressor and Controls Manufacturers, with a value of € 10 000 , has been announced in October 2002. The award was granted for the most valuable energy saving concept or system in refrigeration/air conditioning/heat pump technology*. New concepts, practicable technically, and acceptable economically were the requirements for eligible applications. An international panel of technical experts from France, Germany and Italy evaluated the applicants' cases and made final judgment.

* Energy consumption contributes by far the majority of greenhouse gas emissions over the lifetime of refrigeration and air conditioning systems - substantially more than any direct emissions of the HFC refrigerants. Typically 14% of Germany’s power consumption is used in these systems, and the figure is similar for other European countries. Hence efficiency improvements represent the way forward for the industry to contribute to emission reduction and therefore this award has been focused on energy reducing concepts.