Frigesco receives £93,000 funding
UK: The energy-saving flash defrost for refrigeration systems being developed by Frigesco is to receive a further £93,000 of government funding.
DECC announced yesterday that Exeter-based Frigesco had been granted a further £93,000 from its Energy Entrepreneurs’ Fund. The new grant follows the company’s success in the last round of funding in September 2013 when it was awarded £145,000.
The Energy Entrepreneurs’ Fund is provided for companies developing cutting-edge low-carbon energy projects in generation, efficiency and storage.
Award success
This latest success comes on top of the company being shortlisted in two categories of the forthcoming National ACR Awards 2015.
The technology, which, it is claimed, can reduce supermarket cooling energy costs by up to 20%, has been shortlisted for Refrigeration Product of the Year, and Environmental Champion. This follows Frigesco’s success in the recent Cooling Industry Awards, where its flash defrost system took the top award for Refrigeration Innovation of the Year.
The patented technology uses a phase-change material to capture waste heat produced by a refrigeration system and use it to defrost evaporators, in the process boosting efficiency, extending plant life, safeguarding food hygiene, and improving safety for store staff.
The innovation, developed by a team headed by professor Tom Davies, is currently being trialled in working stores by leading UK supermarkets. Once proven in cold rooms, the next stage will be to apply the system to refrigerated display cases.
Conventional methods of hot-gas defrosting of by using electric heaters impact on the efficiency of the refrigeration plant and can cost stores thousands of pounds a year.
Frigesco’s system absorbs and removes waste heat from the refrigeration system in the normal course of operation, increasing its efficiency in the process by adding a sub-cooling effect, and then using this “free” energy to carry out highly efficient defrosts.
Related news:
Low energy fridge defrost brings rewards – June 30, 2014
A new flash defrost technology, which promises to dramatically reduce the running costs of retail refrigeration equipment, is currently being trialled in stores across the UK by several leading supermarket chains. Read more…
