COOL-E

The Cool-E project will develop a cost-effective, low carbon system for recovering waste heat to useful power, using the Dearman Engine and liquid nitrogen (LN2) as a fuel. The project will be based on application of the system to a refrigerated truck, a promising early market with potential to offer 80-90% reduction in CO2 emissions from refrigeration, and payback in 12 months of operation. However, the project will also validate the installation of an LN2 system and Dearman Engine on a moving vehicle for the first time, supporting further applications such as waste heat recovery from internal combustion engines (ICEs) for propulsive power, and zero-emission propulsion. These applications will be studied analytically with validation from the vehicle work, to develop a vision for routes to market. Though widely used in industry (and available through existing infrastructure), LN2 is only just beginning to attract widespread interest as an energy vector. John Hayes, former Energy and Climate Change Minister recently wrote that “liquid air has the potential to open a global market worth tens of billions of pounds”. This project brings together world class engineering partners with global reach from the private sector and academia alongside representatives of early adopters to ensure both rigour and market fit.